METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MEASURING GAS FLOW

IN THE CANADIAN PATENT AND TRADEMARK OFFICE PATENT APPLICATION Entitled: A METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR MEASURING GAS FLOW Inventors: INGRAIN Dominique; BOSE Tapan; SAINT-ARNAUD Jean-Marie Assignees: GAZ DE FRANCE & UNIVERSITE DU QUEBEC A TROIS RIVIERES ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A method and apparatus for measuring the gaseous flow of a fluid flowing along a duct, the apparatus comprises a processing and control unit connected firstly to a flow rate measuring device which delivers data representative of the flow rate Qm of the gas under the conditions of temperature Tm and pressure Pm that are determined by temperature and pressure sensors disposed in said duct, and secondly to a unit for determining the compressibility factor Zm, which unit delivers data representative of the dielectric constant .epsilon. of the gas flowing in the duct, so as to enable the flow rate Q of the gas to be determined as reduced to predefined reference conditions of temperature To, pressure Po, and compressibility factor Zo. The data representative of the dielectric constant of the gas is obtained by a capacitive transducer constituted by a cylindrical capacitor placed under the same thermodynamic conditions as applied to the flow of gas.