FLOWMETER WORKING.

What are flow meters?

Flowmeter is the devices that measure the flow rate of the fluid. They are installed in any process vessels in order to measure the process flow data like volumetric flow rates, velocities etc.

They are designed in such a way that it can measure and calibrated to get parameters at an exact specific time at a specific location.

Today we are going to discuss various flow meters and their classification and also there working principals.

Flowmeter Classification.

Flowmeter is classified as constant area meter or variable head meter and variable area flow meter.

In constant area flow meter, area of devices are constant I.e area of construction of such devices are constant. The pressure drop across the device changes and the area of flow remains constant.

Whereas in the variable area, the area of devices is design in such a way that can be used to measure the parameter. They are either increasing area or decreasing area meter. Pressure drop across throat is constant and the area of flow is changing.

Variable head or constant area meter includes Venturi meter and orifice meter. And Variable area meter includes Rotameter.

Another classification is that devices that neither fall in above classifications. They are called a Pitot tube that measures point velocity and local velocity.

In Pitot tube, velocity is directly converted to Pressure head.

VENTURI METER :

The construction of these devices includes a cylindrical converging section followed by a cylindrical throat followed by diverging section. This simple construction is responsible for creating different pressure drops in a different section as fluid flows.
Here pressure drop across throat is constant and flow area are changing.


In the converging section, the cross-sectional area decreases that increase the fluid velocity and decrease the pressure along with that location.
While in the diverging section, the cross-sectional area increases that decreases the fluid velocity and increases the pressure along with that location.


One thing should be noted here that pressure along the converging section is larger than pressure along the diverging section.
It follows continuity equation that states that when area decreases velocity along that area increase.

Use of Venturi meter to find volumetric flow rate.

These difference in pressure can be measured by a simple manometer and reading can be correlated to flow rate by the application of Bernoulli's equation.
By applying Bernoulli equation at location 1 & 2

∆h = Difference in kinetic head.
Kinetic head can be directly obtain by application of manometers..

By applying manometric balance on manometers, a general equation for volumetric flow rate can be achieved that would be referred as theoretical discharge.

As per equation of continuity with constant density fluids.

Here final equation can be written as,

Above equation is used for theoretical discharge.

And to achieve real discharge a termed called coefficient of discharge is used.

Usually it values is take around 0.90 to 0.98
This value shows that venturi meter is efficient and economical.

Application of venturi meter can be found in many process industry were it is important to measure the volumetric or mass flow rates.

It can be directly installed in between joints of two pipes.Venturi meter are very costly on construction point of view but this gives it a great advantage of having less kinetic head loss.
Venturi meter with large coefficient of discharge are favourable.

SURFACE TENSION AND CAPILLARY ACTION.

When I was young, I always used to wonder and also you might have seen, leaves or insect floating  on water rather than sinking. I always doubted this occurrence, questioned how is this happening and why it is happening.

I thought that it might be a special ability of insects to do so but then I came to know about surface tension. So, what is surface tension?

WHAT IS SURFACE TENSION?

Surface tension is the property of the surface of a liquid that makes the surface to resist any external force due to nature and arrangement of its molecules.

There is some force responsible for the phenomenon known as surface tension, they are termed as capillary forces. They are divided into two groups, Cohesive force and Adhesive force.

COHESIVE FORCE AND  ADHESIVE FORCE

Cohesive forces are the force of attraction between the same molecule of fluid.while,
Adhesive force is the force of attraction between dissimilar molecules.

Due to Cohesive force, a molecule is pulled equally in every direction by neighbouring liquid molecules let understand using an example,

Molecule A is attracted by neighbouring molecules equally in all direction because it is located at some depth on the liquid pool.
Here the net force of action will be zero.

But Molecule B is located at the surface of the liquid pool and is attracted by neighbour molecules in a downward direction only.

That is molecule A is balanced and molecule B is Unbalanced.

Net force will act in a downward direction. This creates some internal pressure. The surface will feel tension and surface will stretch like membrane and this tension force is called Surface tension.
Surface tension has the dimension of energy per unit area or Surface force per unit length.

In a study of fluid mechanics when compared with other forces like Gravitational and Pressure forces, Surface tension is very much negligible. As in fluid mechanic, everything is considered macroscopic in nature for just convenience in the study and applying principles.

But when considered control volume is small or Boundaries of the system considered are small, surface tension cannot be neglected.
For example, the capillary tube, here surface tension is considerably large compared to gravitational or any other forces.

WETTING AND NON-WETTING FLUID.

Fluid, On the basis of surface forces, can be classified as wetting fluid and non-wetting fluid.

Fluid in which ADHESIVE FORCES are greater compared to COHESIVE FORCES are termed as WETTING FLUID

While in which COHESIVE FORCES are greater compared to ADHESIVE FORCES are termed as NON-WETTING FLUID

ANGLE OF CONTACT (AOC).

The angle that tangent to the liquid surface makes with the solid surface at the point of contact.

Based on the angle of contact, a fluid having AOC less then 90° is termed as wetting fluid while one with AOC more then 90° is termed as non-wetting fluid.

CAPILLARY RISE AND FALL.

Example Water and Mercury.

Height of liquid rise and fall.

Based on weight liquid in a capillary tube and vertical component of surface tension be calculated by balancing both the force and it is...

Basics of Fluid Mechanics.

 What are fluids.

Fluid are mainly liquid or gases or vapours which can flow when applied force or shear force on them. In academics of chemical engineering, fluid flow operation or fluid mechanics plays an important role. Apart from this, it has application in wide range of disciplines including mechanical, civil, Biochemical engineering etc.

The behaviour of fluid is important to process engineering or studying Unit operation. It also helps in the understanding problem very accurately in the movement of fluid through Pipes, channels, or Pumps and all kind of process equipment.

What is fluid mechanics.

Fluid flow operation or fluid mechanics is a branch of engineering that deals with studying behaviour of fluid and it's physics.
Fluid mechanics, in turn, are divided into vast sections like FLUID STATICS AND FLUID DYNAMICS.
Fluid statics is a branch of fluid mechanics that allows studying fluids in a rest position or not in motion. I.e Absence of any stress or force like water in tank or ponds.
Fluid dynamic allows the study of fluid where a portion or fluid as a whole in effect by the presence of stress or force like the flow of fluid through pumps or pipes.

Fluid mechanics wholly depends on empirical or semi-empirical laws which can be used to solve a practical problem.

 Applications of Fluid mechanics.

Application of fluid mechanics lies within another subdiscipline like aerodynamics which is used to study the effect of air or gases, the drag force on submerged solids in fluid.
The major assumption to fluid mechanics can be expressed in terms of mathematical expression I.e Ideal or empirical fluid in fluid mechanics are assumed to obey

1.Conservation of mass.
2.Conservation of energy.
3.Conservation of momentum.

Here, conservation of mass, means mass in any control volume I.e body under consideration or study is conserved. In easy words, the rate of change of mass contained in the control volume is equal to the rate of mass passing through the surface. (If all accumulation or losses are neglected.)

 Classification of fluids.

Apart from these, fluid is classified as a Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluid which are classified on the basis of rheological properties of fluid I.e Relationship between shear stress and shear rate in real fluids.
All these are governed by newton law of viscosity.which state that for fluid under consideration shear stress is directly proportional to shear rate.
Here, shear stress is the force exerted on a normal surface.
Shear rate or velocity gradient is the rate of change of velocity with the position.
And viscosity is the difficulty in fluid flow.

Minus sign shows that on increasing stress, the shear rate decreases.
Unit of viscosity is Poise which is
gm/(cm ×sec ).

Kinematic viscosity is the ratio of dynamic viscosity to density of the fluid.
Density is mass per unit volume of fluid. (kg/m^3).

Thank you for today and in the next blog, we will see some other major topic in fluid mechanics.
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Unit operations and Unit Processes

Importance of Unit Operations.

In chemical engineering and other related fields like biochemical engineering, unit operation plays an important role.

The unit operation involves physical changes like separation, evaporation, filtration, crystallization etc.

In chemical engineer academics or even further studies, the unit operation can be divided into five classes.

1.Fluid flow operations.
2.Heat transfer operations.
3.mass transfer operation.
4.Thermodynamics.
5.Mechanical operations.

A chemical engineer has to do with the industrial process in which raw material is changed to a useful product.

Chemical engineering has to design and develop the process and engineer out the problem coming in there ways.

During this process, the chemical engineer has to keep the following things in mind and also consider it

 1.  Correct raw material regarding the      developed process
 2. Plants efficiency regarding the equipment that is considered.
 3. Safety.
 4. Market requirements that products have to meet.
 5. Most important, Economical point of view.

  Application of Unit Operations.

Unit operations are applicable to many physical processes like, let take an example.
When I was in 3rd year of engineering, I was supposed to do a summer internship which was compulsory for every student.
I had my internship in Gujarat Alkalies and Chemical limited located in Vadodara, Ranoli. There, for the first time in my life, I had the experience of the chemical industry which was great. Because it feels great when you are studying something and you get the chance of seeing and understand for real.

Mainly GACL, manufactures Caustic soda NaOH from Salt NaC.

Its process consists of the following sequence of unit operation such as,

1.Transportation of solid and liquid raw materials

2. Evaporation

3.Crystallization 

4.Filtration

5.Electrolysis

6.Drying

7.Chemical treatment.

8.Separation or Screening.

This was quite simple and easy to understand while on other hand processes like cracking of Petroleum with or without a catalyst is a complex and critical process.

The main aim of the chemical engineer may be to form the reaction zone by controlling or regulating the flow of material or energy.

Reaction zone means material had already reacted and need physical treatment or is about to initiate the reaction.

A balanced discussion of each operation requires the knowledge of theory and equipment consideration together. It is all based on science and experience.

 What is Unit Process

Unit Processes is a step or series of step to bring about chemical changes. They may include the  breaking of bonds and the formation of new bonds with existing or another element about releasing or absorbing energy 

Some of the famous chemical reaction are Nitrogination, Oxidation, reduction,   sulfonation etc

Unit Process includes all treatment methods which are useful for removal of impurities or containers which are brought about by chemical or biological reaction.

Role of a  chemical engineer.

Here the main role of the chemical engineer initially is to generate the desired products on a laboratory scale or pilots scale (like an experiment) and once the product is made through some specific route. Taking route in mind some modification, if possible are made to make process convenient and economical.

After that, the next step would be to scale up the pilot-scale plant to commercial industrial or large scale.

Here, the chemical engineer has to make assumptions and has to decide what type of equipment would be feasible as there may be lots of equipment but based on process condition and requirement, some specific equipment is selected or design

Thank you for today, will meet you another blog with some new information about chemical engineering.

Hope, you are liking my writing and let me know if you are...

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Major categories of chemical industry

Classification chemical industry

Today, we are going to talk about the major categories of the chemical industry.
The chemical industry comprises the companies that produce industrial chemicals. Based on their specialities their raw materials could be oil, natural gases, air, water, material or minerals which they convert into products that are directly or indirectly useful to them or other companies as raw materials or they can sell them for domestic use.

This all begins I.e production of different chemical on a large scale at the time of the industrial revolution.
Talking about the chemical product we can picture out some major class such as plastics or polymers, petroleum or petrochemical, other inorganic chemicals including dyes, rubber, various salts and also fertilizer industries, the pharmaceutical industry etc.

Polymer Industry

Polymers are the largest revenue segmented includes all categories of plastic and man-made fibres. They include large production of polyethylene, used in various packaging, carry bags and also other domestic uses.
Polyvinyl chloride PVC, is also a large volume market, principally used to make piping, toys and other domestic plastic delicates.
Polypropylene, similarly in volume to PVC used in packaging, appliances, clothing etc.

Other man-made fibres include polyesters,  nylon, acrylics with an application such as home furnishing and other industrial and domestic uses.

Petroleum and Petrochemical industry

Chemical in bulk petroleum and petrochemicals intermediate is made from crude oil or natural gas as there key material.
There are large markets on volume products like ethylene, propylene, toluene other alcohols which are majorly used as solvents or basic commodity.

Fertilizer industry

The fertilizer industry has also a small share in the chemical market as India is an agricultural country and most of the revenue is generated by farming and agricultural sector.
Fertilizer companies use natural and artificial methods to enhance the nutrition demands of plants and crops. The basic element that are included in artificial fertilizer are Nitrogen, phosphate and potash chemical.

Speciality chemicals can be categorized based on their demands and product markets. Product is sold for what they can do rather than for what chemical they contain or what process they are made up from.

Chemical products include chemical, electrical physiochemical treatment, decides their price including manpower and utilities used.

From the perspective of chemical engineers the chemical industries involving the use of chemical processes such as chemical reaction, refining methods to produce a wide variety of solid, liquid or gaseous products.

Pharmaceutical industry.

Although the pharmaceutical industry is often considered a chemical industry. They include special chemicals or special elements or their groups whose therapeutic action can be used to produce a drug which is capable to cure the same sort of disease the following elements or chemicals can target to.

Thank you for today, will meet you another blog with some new information about chemical engineering.

Hope, you are liking my writing and let me know if you are...

Type your comments down below to suggest me anything that you want me to write on.
Your suggestions will be appreciated.
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What is Chemical Engineering

What is Chemical engineering

Chemical Engineering is a branch of engineering that uses principles of physics, chemistry, mathematical and many more.

Its stands for transferring raw material with energy to useful products.
The boundaries of chemical engineering can be from laboratory or pilot scale to large scale industrial applications.

A degree of chemical engineering is directly or indirectly linked with other branches of engineering to various extents.

According to various texts, George Davis is the one who had put the foundation's operations but alone it was found to be insufficient.

Various societies working majorly on chemical engineering could be found on the internet.

Role Chemical engineering in saving the environment.

One more good concept in it that chemical engineers are also responsible for waste management or byproduct utilization and eradication, problems in the environment engaged due to chemical activities like catalytic conversions, effluent treatment facilities to minimize the release of harmful material directly to the environment.

Until now, all I can understand is that the role of the chemical engineer is to design and troubleshooting the difficulty in processes for chemical production, fuel, food, pharmaceutical etc.

Salary and Jobs in India chemical engineers.

Now let just talk about the job in India.
Chemical Engineering students or fresher can earn a salary or stipends under various government initiated apprentice programs of around 20000 Rs in a well-known organization.
Payscale of chemical engineering is around or in range of 2 to 12 lakhs per year depending on the institution you are working for whether it is a government PSU or just private sector

Working in government PSU can lead you to have other special facilities such as medical facilities, colony, other many more and that's all for free. Sounds great right!
Salary wise, India us a good hub for a chemical engineer because of good increments that one can get on a yearly basis, once got the job.

Risks in chemical engineering Jobs

Depending on the role there are some risks with working as a chemical engineer as you can be exposed to health and safety hazards handling chemical while working in production plants that make chemical graduates very much prone to higher earning in the profession like this.

Business ideas chemical engineers.

Apart from these jobs, there are various business ideas for a chemical engineer can have...
They are chemical engineering consultancy where you can help to overcome the problem of different companies regarding their safety, process, or even marketing...
Even they can start there own productions of chemical and other commodities that might be useful for other companies.
As we know chemical engineering is all about energy, you can come up with new energy-saving ideas.

That's it for today, put your comment down there in comment box to suggest me ideas that I can work on.
Thank you 

Who are chemical engineers and what do they do.

Introduction 

Hello everyone, myself Jayesh Parmar, I am from India, Gujarat. I am a chemical engineering graduate from Gujarat technological university.

Today, I am about to start writing about one of the greatest fields of engineering I.e chemical engineering, if you had some idea ever heard about chemistry or studied one you would have one common understanding that what was supposed to be a chemical engineer.

‌Chemical Engineering has a rich past and a bright future and in India every year more than 10000+ students graduate in chemical engineering disciplines.

After passing SCC from Gujarat secondary and higher secondary education board, there was a vast range of choices that a common middle-class boy can opt for.
Many of my friends opted for arts, commerce and science stream, that was in the following manner based on there percentage like one having 85+% opted for science stream, 65+% opted for commerce and below that opted for art.

I opted for science, in which major subjects were chemistry,  physics and mathematics. During the course of 4-semester I.e 2 years.
I was cleared that I personally loved studying chemistry, so after passing HSC, I opted for chemical engineering through state admission procedure I.e ACPC.

I got admission in Parul institute of technology but guess what, the things I thought for choosing chemical engineering thinking about the interest of chemistry was not actually the same.

Academic study of chemical engineer

During this course of the 4-year program, I came across various subjects, concepts like mass transfer, fluid mechanics, Heat transfer, Thermodynamics, instrumentation and Process control, Process calculation, mechanical operation, a chemical reaction engineering, chemical technology etc. which was completely or partially very much useful in day to day industrial life.

According to me, chemical engineering is the only field of engineering which has to do with the industrial process in which raw material is economically converted into intermediates or final useful products.

Chemical engineering has to design and develop the process and engineer out the problem coming in there ways.

Basic chemical engineering considerations.

During this process, the chemical engineer has to keep the following things in mind and also consider it

1.  Correct raw material regarding the      developed process
2. Plants efficiency regarding the equipment that is considered.
3. Safety.
4. Market requirements that products have to meet.
5. Most important, Economical point of view.

Chemical Engineering is all about information and using them to develop a practical solution to the prevailing problem.

Chemical industry

Variety of Processes and industries that I had come across are,
1. Petroleum and Petrochemical industries.
2. Heavy chemical industries.
3. Organics or speciality chemicals industries
4. Polymer industries.
5. Fertilizer industry.
6. Food processing industry
7. Pharmaceutical industry
8. Alkalies and chemical industry

Above known industries are not only good for business but are also attaining increasingly importance.

Above known industries has well-developed range products and their process which might be lengthy or complex.

Here, a chemical engineer can redesign or modify the process based on its knowledge, application of concepts and also experience into simple and economical product/Process.

That's all for today, I will be posting more information and specs regarding chemical engineering.....
So stay tuned to my new blog.
I will wait for all your valuable ideas that you all want me to suggest...
I will consider your valuable recommendation, Thank you....