TELKOMNIKA, Vol.10, No.8, December 2012, pp.

2013~2019 e-ISSN: 2087-278X accredited by DGHE (DIKTI), Decree No: 51/Dikti/Kep/2010

2013

Development of an Electromagnetic Flowmeter with Dual Frequency Excitation

Tiejun Liu*, Tongsheng Gong, Yinjia Chen
College of Metrology and Measurement Engineering,China Jiliang University No.258,Xueyuan Street,Xiasha High Education Garden,Hangzhou,China *corresponding author, e-mail: tjliu@cjlu.edu.cn

Abstract
A design of electromagnetic flowmeter with time division dual frequency excitation is proposed. The new design keeps the advantage of zero-point stability of the conventional electromagnetic flowmeter.The immunity to low frequency noise is enhanced and the dynamic response to the fast change of flow velocity is improved. A prototype flowmeter was made based on the proposed design. The experiment result shows that the prototype flowmeter can measure water flow in a wide velocity range with satisfactory accuracy. Keywords: square wave excitation, dual frequency, time division, zero-point stability Copyright 2012 Universitas Ahmad Dahlan. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Electromagnetically measurement of the flow of an electrically conductive fluid is based on the theory of Faradays law of electromagnetic induction.With the advantages of high precision,fast response,simple structure and etc.,they have been widely used in industrial field and civilian facilities [1-3]. The conventional design of electromagnetic flowmeter incorporates a magnetic field excited by a square wave current of low frequency, which brings the advantages of zero-point stability and high precision. In such case, the flow rate can be sampled only once in an excitation cycle, the excitation frequency will limit the dynamic response capability of the flowmeter. As the noises in the sensor signal picked up by electrodes are mainly distributed in the low frequency band, as respects de-noising the sensor signal, a higher sample rate is preferable. When the medium measured is liquid of low conductivity or pulp, the flow-induced noise, which is a kind of 1/f noise, will make measurement at low frequency infeasible [4]. Some designs with a magnetic field excited by a dual frequency current have been proposed to avoid the limitations of the conventional design while keeping the advantage of zero-point stability. The proposed exciting current waveform is composed of a low frequency component and a high frequency component. The theoretical part is simple, but the electronic circuits to realize such a design are complicated. The related design details are confidential, public information is very limited [5-7]. On the basis of analyzing the characteristics of different dual frequency excitation designs for electromagnetic flowmeter, a design with time division dual frequency excitation is proposed. The well verified signal conditioning circuit used in the conventional electromagnetic flowmeter is adopted. The advantage of zero-point stability is inherited from the conventional design. The complexity of circuit implementation is minimized. A prototype electromagnetic flowmeter based on the proposed design was developed. The prototype was tested and proved to have enhanced precision in a wide measurement range.

2. Design Schemes of Electromagnetic Fowmeter with Dual Frequency Excitation According to the waveforms of the exciting current for generating the magnetic field, the designs of electromagnetic flowmeter with dual frequency excitation can be classified into the complex dual frequency category and the time division dual frequency category. The theoretical considerations of both are the same, which are to use the low frequency excitation component to ensure zero-point stability, and use the high frequency excitation component to enhance

Received September 28, 2012; Revised November 1, 2012; Accepted November 9, 2012

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dynamic response ability. As the signal conditioning circuits for the two categories are different in structure and complexity, the features of both categories will be discussed briefly as follows.

Figure 1. Waveforms of the Complex Dual Frequency Excitation System

2.1 Electromagnetic Flowmeter with Complex Dual Frequency Excitation The excitation waveform of an electromagnetic flowmeter with complex dual frequency excitation is shown in Figure 1(c). The waveforms of the low and high frequency components are shown in Figure 1(a) and Figure 1(b). The waveform of the sensor output signal is shown in Figure 1(d). The waveform of the high frequency component is embedded in the waveform of the low frequency component. This means that the period of the low frequency component must be multiple the period of the high frequency component. To reduce the influence of the linefrequency noise, the period of the low frequency component should be even multiples of the line-frequency period. Practically, if the line-frequency is 50Hz,the frequency of the low and high frequency components will be 6.25Hz and 75Hz. To restore the flow signal, the sensor output is amplified and de-noised, then the low frequency component of the flow signal and the high frequency component of the flow signal are extracted. The deviation between the sample result of the low frequency component and the that of the high frequency component is used to compensate the zero-point deviation of the later. In such designs, the low frequency component and the high frequency component of the flow signal are sampled synchronically. But with the influence of high frequency component, the magnetic field is always in transitional state, the zero-point of the low frequency component is affected. To accurately estimate the zero-point deviation due to the high frequency excitation, the circuit design for separating the low frequency component and the high frequency component of the flow signal is complicated.

Figure 2. Waveforms of the Time Division Dual Frequency Excitation System

2.2 Electromagnetic Flowmeter with Time Division Dual Frequency Excitation The excitation waveform of an electromagnetic flowmeter with the time division dual frequency excitation is shown in Figure 2(a). An excitation cycle is composed of one low frequency excitation cycle and multiple high frequency excitation cycles. The high frequency excitation cycles and the low frequency cycles appear alternatively. The frequency of the low and high frequency components can be selected independently. If the line-frequency is 50Hz,

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the low frequency can be selected as 6.25Hz, the high frequency can be selected in the range of 25Hz to 75Hz. With the time division dual frequency excitation, the waveform of the output signal of the electromagnetic transducer is shown in Figure 2(b). During the low frequency excitation cycle, the flowmeter works in the same way as a conventional electromagnetic flowmeter with low frequency square wave excitation. The flow rate measured during the low frequency cycle has the advantage of zero-point stability. Different from the conventional design, however, the sensor signal is sampled for multiple times during the low frequency excitation period, to record its changing trend from the moment the excitation current direction is switched to the moment when the magnetic field is taken as stable. The recorded samples are used to estimate the zero-point deviation during the high frequency excitation periods. The zero-point stability of the system during high frequency excitation periods is improved. The time division dual frequency excitation design has the advantages of the simplified signal process circuit and the possibility of conditioning the sensor signal during low frequency periods with the circuit verified in the conventional design [5]. As the design details of the electromagnetic flowmeter with dual frequency excitation are not available, in order to simplify the complexity of the circuit design, a prototype flowmeter was made based on the time division dual frequency excitation technique.

Figure 3. Signal Process for Flowmeter with Time Division Dual Frequency Excitation

Figure 4. Sample and Control Timing Waveform

Development of an Electromagnetic Flowmeter with Dual Frequency Excitation (Tiejun Liu)

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3. Signal Process for Flowmeter with Time Division Dual Frequency Excitation The schematic diagram of the signal process circuit for the time division dual frequency excitation design is shown in Figure 3. The control signals for the sample-and-hold amplifiers Labeled S1 to S5 are shown in Figure 4(d) to Figure 4(g). The induced signal from electrodes E1 and E2 is firstly amplified by the preamplifier A1. The noises of low frequency are suppressed by a high pass filter composed of capacitor C1 and resistor R1. The waveform of the signal Vs is shown in Figure 4(b). S1 and S2 sample signal Vs respectively in the positive and negative half cycle of the high frequency excitation cycles. The sampled signal is then passed to the low pass filter composed of R2 and C2. Signal VH is the flow signal during high frequency excitation periods. S3 and S4 sample signal Vs respectively in the positive and negative half cycle of the low frequency excitation cycles. The sampled signal filtered by the low pass filter composed of R3 and C4. Signal VL of the low pass filter is the flow signal during low frequency excitation cycles. As VL is taken as the flow signal with stable zero-point and VH is taken as the flow signal with zero-point deviation, VL minus VH is calculated. The zero-point deviation compensated flow signal is denoted as VO in Figure 3. 4. Circuit Design for Flowmeter with Time Division Dual Frequency Excitation 4.1 General Schematic Diagram of the Flowmeter The schematic diagram of the electromagnetic flowmeter with time division dual frequency excitation is shown in Figure 5. A 32 bit microcontroller LPC2136,with an ARM7 core, is used as the control unit of the flowmeter. A square wave signal of 75Hz is generated with the embedded PWM module of the microcontroller LPC2136 and is used as the input signal of the excitation waveform generator.The excitation waveform generator outputs the time division dual frequency excitation waveform which is a CMOS level logic signal as shown in Figure 4(a). Then this signal is used to control the voltage to current converter to generate a current with the similar waveform. The time division dual frequency current is amplified with the power amplifier. The output of the power amplifier is used to drive the excitation coil of the electromagnetic transducer in the flowmeter. The induced signal of the transducer is fed to the preamplifier. The high and low frequency components of the flow signal are sampled by two sample units, and then filtered with lowpass filter 1 and lowpass filter 2 respectively, the noises of high frequency are suppressed. The filtered flow signals, both the high frequency component and the low frequency component, are fed to the flow signal fusion unit, from which the final flow signal is generated.The final flow signal is sampled with the aid of the analog to digital converter (A/D). The flow velocity is displayed with a LCD display unit. A keypad of 4 keys is designed for parameter input.

Figure 5. Schematic Diagram of the Flowmeter

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4.2 Excitation Waveform Generator The schematic diagram of the excitation waveform generator is shown in Figure 6. The square wave signal of 75Hz comes from the output of the embedded PWM unit in the microcontroller LPC2136. U6A(74LS92) is a frequency divider , its output signal is a square wave signal of 6.25Hz. This signal is delayed by U7, the output signal of U7 is later than its input by a half of the cycle period of 75Hz signal. H/L is driven by an I/O pin of the microcontroller. when H/L is low, the negative output of U9A is set to 1 and the positive output of U9A is cleared, dual-FQ gives high frequency (75Hz) cycles. When H/L is pulled high by the microcontroller, the positive output of U9A will be set to 1 and the negative output of U9A is cleared at the next rising edge of the signal ORG_6.25Hz, the high frequency square wave signal is blocked and the low frequency square wave SA_6.25Hz is connected to Dual_FQ. The next coming rising edge of ORG_6.25Hz will change the state of U9A again, so only one low frequency cycle is passed over to the output of the excitation waveform generator at one time. The waveforms at different points of this unit are shown in Figure 7.

75HZ

DF _RES ET U7 U8A 74HC04 9 2 75Hz-1 2 1 B A 74HC164 8 MR CLK 12 11 9 8 1 Q7 Q6 Q5 Q4 Q3 Q2 Q1 Q0 13 12 11 10 6 5 4 3

6 7 75Hz 14 1

R0(1) R0(2) CKA CKB U6

QA QB QC QD 74LS92

SA_6.25HZ

OR G_6.25Hz

SA_6.25HZ U9A 3 1 74HC08 Q 6 74HC74 1 9 10 74HC08 U9C 8 9 10 74HC86 U10C 8 Dual_FQ

2 Q U9A 5

U9B 4

D CLK

63 H/L 5 74HC08

Low_Fin 75Hz-1

Figure.6 Schematic Diagram of the Excitation Waveform Generator

Figure 7. Waveforms of the Excitation Waveform Generator Development of an Electromagnetic Flowmeter with Dual Frequency Excitation (Tiejun Liu)

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Figure 7(a) stands for the waveform of signal 75Hz. Figure 7(b) stands for 75Hz-1. Figure 7(c) stands for ORG_6.25Hz. Figure 7(d) stands for SA_6.25Hz. Figure 7(e) stands for H/L. Figure 7(f) and (g) stand for the positive and negative output of U9A. Figure 7(h) stands for Dual_FQ , the output signal of the excitation waveform generator. 4.3 Signal Conditioning Circuit Design The induced signal of the electromagnetic transducer picked-up from the electrodes is amplified by a low noise preamplifier.The instrumentation amplifier AD620 from Analog Device Inc. is used as the preamplifier for its advantages of low noise and flexibility in gain configuration. The common-mode noise in the sensor signal can be suppressed effectively by the preamplifier. Four chips of sample-and-hold amplifier LF398 are used to sample the high frequency component and the low frequecy component of the flow signal ,as denoted in Figure 3 with S1,S2,S3 and S4. Lowpass filter 1 and lowpass filter 2 are both second order Butterworth lowpass filters . ADS1259B from Texas instrument Inc. is used as the analog to digital converter. It is a 24 bit - type analog to digital converter with an internal voltage reference with temperature stability better than 10ppm/C. ADS1259B is controlled by the microcontroller with its SPI module. Driven by an external clock of 2.4567MHz, ADS1259B can work at the speed between 10 to 14400 samples per second. To minimize the influence of the noise of powerline frequency, ADS1259B is set to work at the speed of 50 samples per second.

Table 1. Prototype Test Result with Conventional Low Frequency Excitation Design
Percent of Range[%] 100 Flow rate [m3/h] 320 Volume [Liter] 5553.004 5552.809 5609.683 3142.400 3058.797 3103.351 1105.415 1106.218 1113.634 356.062 353.259 361.872 Prototype Reading[Liter] 5526.9 5540.0 5585.6 3133.5 3046.1 3089.8 1102.8 1104.0 1111.3 354.3 351.3 360.1 Error [Liter] -26.104 -12.809 -24.083 -8.9 -12.697 -13.551 -2.615 -2.218 -2.334 -1.762 -1.959 -0.772 Relative Error [%] -0.47 -0.23 -0.43 -0.28 -0.41 -0.43 -0.24 -0.20 -0.21 -0.49 -0.55 -0.21

50

160

20

65

25

Table 2. Prototype Test Result with Time Division Dual Frequency Excitation Design
Percent of Range[%] 100 Flow rate [m3/h] 320 Volume [Liter] 5575.724 5580.833 5577.762 3029.259 3076.757 3088.040 1155.586 1154.560 1129.338 508.367 505.585 495.950 Prototype Reading[Liter] 5572.936 5586.972 5575.382 3031.985 3075.526 3093.29 1156.511 1155.137 1131.145 507.858 504.675 495.702 Error [Liter] -2.788 6.139 -2.38 2.726 -1.231 5.250 0.925 0.577 1.807 -0.509 -0.91 -0.248 Relative Error [%] -0.05 0.11 -0.04 0.09 -0.04 0.17 0.08 0.05 0.16 -0.10 -0.18 -0.05

50

160

20

65

25

5. Prototype Test Result A prototype electromagnetic flowmeter with time division dual frequency excitation was developed. The prototype flowmeter, matched with an electromagnetic flow transducer of DN150, was tested on a calibration system using weighing method. The precision of the calibration system is 0.1%. The test result of a typical flowmeter with the conventional design is shown in Table 1. The measurement precision of the flowmeter of conventional design is better than 0.5%. The test result of the prototype with time division dual frequency excitation, on the TELKOMNIKA Vol. 10, No. 8, December 2012 : 2013 2019

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same calibration condition, is shown in Table 2. The precision of the prototype based on the new design is better than 0.3%.

6. Conclusion The features of two kinds of dual frequency excitation designs of improved electromagnetic flowmeter are analyzed. The time division dual frequency excitation technique was adopted for a prototype design for its advantages of simplified signal process circuit and the possibility of using the signal conditioning circuit verified in the conventional electromagnetic flowmeter design. It is proved that the proposed time division dual frequency excitation technique is helpful in enhancing the precision of the electromagnetic flowmeter in a wide measurement range.

Acknowledgement Special acknowledgement is given to the Key Team Project of Science and Technology Innovation of Zhejiang Province (2009R50024) for its fund support. Acknowledgement is also given to the project (Y201018818) from the Education Department of Zhejiang Province, P.R.China.

References
[1] Shercliff JA. The Theory of Electro-magnetic Flow Measurement. London: Cambridge University Press. 1962: 1-65. [2] Bevir MK. Theory of Induced Voltage Electromagnetic Flowmeters. Journal of Fluid Mechanics. 1970; 43(3): 577-590. [3] Bevir MK, Osullivan VT, Wyatt DG. Computation of Electromagnetic Flowmeter Characteristics from Magnetic Field Data. Journal of Physics. D: Applied Physics. 1981; 14(3): 373-388. [4] Bin Li, Caidong Tian. Dynamic Response and Zero-point Stability of the Electromagnetic Flowmeter. Journal of Process Automation Instrumentation (in Chinese). 1991; 12(9): 14-18. [5] Saito OK, Sakurai Y, Okayama T. Study on Stabilized Zero-point of Electromagnetic Flowmeters with Rapid Excitation. IMTC94. Hamamatsu. 1994: 829-832. [6] Ichiro Wada I. Electromagnetic Flowmeter. US5090250 (Patent). 1992. [7] Shuanglong Yang, Gang Wang, Kejun Xu, Lei Shi. Linear Regulator Based Single/Dual Frequency Excitation Control System for Electromagnetic Flowmeter. Journal of Electronic Measurement and Instrument (in Chinese). 2010; 24(2): 147-152.

Development of an Electromagnetic Flowmeter with Dual Frequency Excitation (Tiejun Liu)