Design and construction of a turbine flowmeter based on the Hall effect to measure volumetric air flow rate

Abstract

In the current work, details about the design, setting up, and function analysis of a turbine flow meter for volumetric air flow rate measurement have been presented. When the fluid flows through the turbine, a quantity of kinetic energy is transferred from the fluid to the turbine blades causing the turbine rotating. The meter was equipped with a hall effect sensor SS406S to detect the magnetic field change of the rotating magnet that is fixed with the turbine. The sensor output signal was amplified and acquired by the Arduino microcontroller, and the pulse frequency was subsequently determined. The latter is proportional to the turbine’s rotation speed. By calibrating the turbine flow meter, i.e., giving a mathematical function that relates the volumetric flow rate to the output frequency signal, the instantaneous flow rate can be provided in both forms; data acquisition in excel sheet and data display in a digital indicator. The proposed flow meter's performance testing shows that the obtained results are very close to those obtained by the rotameter flow meter, which is used in the calibration process.