Numerical study on performance of perforated plate applied to cryogenic fluid flowmeter

The perforated plate is one of the effective devices for measuring flow rate accurately. In this study, a perforated plate is investigated for its characteristics, mainly including discharge coefficient C and pressure loss coefficient ζ, when applied to cryogenic fluids with the help of ANSYS Fluent. Three cryogenic fluids are studied, including liquid nitrogen (LN₂), liquid oxygen (LO₂), and liquid hydrogen (LH₂). For comparison, two states of water are also investigated. The realizable κ-ε model with standard wall function is used to describe the turbulence and simulate the near-wall flow. The Schnerr-Sauer cavitation model is used to investigate the effect of cavitation on the performance of the perforated plate. Simulation results indicate that the upper limit of Reynolds number of the perforated plate is significantly dependent on the properties of the measured fluid when the temperatures of the fluids are set as the normal boiling point temperatures and the outlet pressures are 0.2 MPa.