FLOW EVALUATION FROM THE ENERGY OF PIPE WALL VIBRATIONS

The leading idea of this work, is to propose a simpler and intuitive mean for evaluating the stationary flow rate in a pipe, through the measurements of vibrations transmitted by the flow to the pipe wall thanks to its turbulent regime. To achieve the target, the authors introduce the RMS value of the pipe oscillation modes, starting from the observation that the intensity of the pipe vibrations depends on the energy content of the signal, in its turn linked to the flow rate measurement. As this statistical parameter can be assumed as an energy level indicator of the whole signal acquired from the pipe vibration, it results linked to the flow rate responsible of that phenomenon. After verifying that the vibrational signal under investigation is a stationary stochastic process, the RMS value can easily and fast provide the value of the flow rate running in a pipe, without worrying too much about the noise associated to the measurement, once the pipe has been characterized.