OriCalc orifice flow calculator
A Windows application for ISO 5167 orifice sizing, measurement-error analysis and engineering reports, now sold as a licensed product.
- Organization
- Independent project
- Discipline
- Software
The challenge
Orifice flow measurement involves interdependent fluid-property, geometry and uncertainty calculations that are cumbersome to prepare and report manually, and the measurement error changes across the operating range.
Contribution
Developed OriCalc, a Windows desktop application for orifice flow meters based on ISO 5167:2003, together with Ali Karimi, PhD. It was built from the start as a commercial product, offered with a free demo, a lifetime licence and enterprise customisation.
Approach
OriCalc works in three modes: it sizes the orifice for a given maximum flow and differential pressure, finds the differential pressure for a known orifice, or computes the flow from a measured pressure drop. It covers corner, flange and D and D/2 tappings for pipes from 50 mm to 1000 mm and Reynolds numbers above 5000. The discharge coefficient is calculated over the whole measurement range, with real-gas properties from models including Redlich–Kwong, IAPWS-95 and Sutherland viscosity with Wilke mixing rules. The software also gives manufacturing dimensions, tap distances, allowed pipe roughness and the minimum straight lengths, including the extra error when they are shorter.
Results
One screen shows the orifice drawing, all fluid parameters and two interactive charts of measurement error across the operating range. A single click produces an engineering report with sizing, fluid parameters, error charts and a technical drawing with pressure tappings. The product is distributed with online payments and device-bound licence activation through orifice-software.com.
Project figures
