Placement
It is important to provide sufficient straight pipe lengths on each side of a flow for proper flow development. The flow development dissipates swirl, promotes a symmetric velocity distribution, and allows for proper pressure recovery downstream of the meter so as to reduce symmetric error. Installation effects can be minimized by placing the flow meter outlined in Figure 10.13. However, the engineer needs to be wary that installation effects are difficult to predict, particularly downstream of elbows (out-of-plane double elbow turns are notoriously difficult), and Figure 10.13 is a guide for best practice (3,7). Even with recommended lengths, an additional 0.5% symmetric uncertainty should be added to the uncertainty in the discharge coefficient to account for swirl effects downstream of turn (3). Unorthodox installation require meter calibration to determine flow coefficients or the use of special correction procedures (3,7). The physical size of a meter may become an important consideration in itself, since in large-diagram pipelines, venturi and nozzle meter can take up considerable length of pipe.