USING TRANSIENT TIME METHOD AND 123I AS RADIOTRACER TO CALIBRATE OIL FLOW METERS IN CLOSED CONDUITS

Resumo

To assure the credibility of commodity transfer operations in the oil and gas industry, calibrated flow meters are used to quantify the movement of fluids in the pipelines. The purpose of this work was to validate the transient time method to calibrate oil flow meters using 123I labeled oil as a radiotracer. As proposed by the standard ISO 2975-7:1977, the method is ideal for experiments in an aqueous medium and using two scintillator detectors separated by a long distance. However, on offshore platforms, it is not always possible to install detectors at the distances recommended by the ISO standard, and the method proposed in this work uses both four scintillator detectors separated from each other by 0.30 m and three radiotracer injections. The experiments were carried out in a lubricant oil flow rig with a turbulent flow profile, and the results have reached an uncertainty level lower than 1.0%.