Hydraulic Flow Meter

A flow meter is a method of measuring the volume of a liquid as it passes a fixed point on a pipe or tube. Measurements are taken in liters per minute or gallons per minute. They measure linear, nonlinear, mass, or volume of a liquid’s flow rate. The key factors that hydraulic engineers watch are flow and pressure to get an accurate and precise measurement of a system. The main function of a hydraulic flow meter is to determine the efficiency and accuracy of the systems operation and performance.

The term hydraulic flow meter is a generic method for describing a hydraulic flow measuring device. Since hydraulic fluids come in different viscosities and with different flow rates, hydraulic flow meters are adjusted and produced to fit the conditions of the type of fluid they are measuring. A hydraulic flow meter can be positioned in any part of a hydraulic line to identify the flow rate. Since not every hydraulic system is the same, there are flow meters with varying port sizes to fit different systems. The meter itself has three main parts, which are the device, a transducer, and transmitter.

The transducer on a hydraulic flow meter measures the velocity of the liquid. They can calculate the flow level or the amount of flow. The transducer senses the passage of the flow through the measuring device and sends a signal to the transmitter. The volume of the flow is proportional to the cross sectional area and the fluid velocity with the mass flow being proportional to the density and volume of the fluid. The data from the calculations appears on the hydraulic flow meter gauge.