Cryogenics 40 (2000) 421
www.elsevier.com/locate/cryogenics
Book review
Flow Measurement Handbook: Industrial Designs, Operating Principles, Performance and Applications Roger C. Baker, Cambrigde University Press, Cambridge, 2000, ISBN 0-521-48010-8 Flow Measurement as a discipline is characterized by a variety of techniques available for the large number of ¯ow measurement problems which arise in both research and industry. This new book is a very useful handbook for engineers working in this area. The preface declares: This book about ¯ow measurement and ¯owmeters is written for all in the industry who specify, design and manufacture, research and develop, maintain and calibrate ¯owmeters. It provides a source of information the published research, design, and performance of ¯owmeters as well as on the claims of ¯owmeter manufacturers. It will be of use to engineers, particularly mechanical and process engineers, and also to the instrument companies' marketing, manufacturing, and management personnel as they seek to identify future products. This book meets this great claim. The structure of the contents is very clear. After a general introduction chapter there are three basic chapters ± ¯uid mechanics essentials ± speci®cation, selection and audit ± calibration. Chapters 5±18 describe the dierent methods of ¯owmeters like ori®ce, venturi meter, displacement-, turbine-, vortex-, electromagnetic-, ultrasonic-, thermal-, coriolis ¯owmeter. Chapter 19 gives a brief introduction to modern control systems, in Chapter 20 there are some re¯ections on ¯owmeter manufacture, production and markets and ®nally Chapter 21 deals with future developments. The style of the book is up to date. The book of about 470 pages is rich and clearly illustrated, mainly with line
PII: S 0 0 1 1 - 2 2 7 5 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 5 1 - 5
drawings showing the principal basic layout of each method. Furthermore, it includes a lot of reasonable graphs, schemes, etc. which is of big advantage for the application. Chapter 2 is very useful in dealing with basic knowledge of ¯ow measurement, like velocity pro®les of the ¯ow, basic equations, unsteady ¯ow and pulsation, etc. There is also a good and important section about ¯ow straighteners. In Chapter 3 the calibration of ¯owmeters is also a topic, seldom discussed in this way. Chapters 5±18 provide the reader with a clear explanation of each type of the dierent measuring methods. The content of each chapter is ®lled with such topics like accuracy, installation eects, applications, advantages, disadvantages and ®nal conclusions. Also for each chapter an appendix is included dealing with the mathematics behind the meter operations, including more than the working equations. This is a useful tool for understanding the behavior under non-ideal conditions or for operating with other ¯uids as for which the ¯owmeter has been designed or calibrated. In addition, the book provides a real big account of references and also a special ¯owmeter index and an application index for a rapid looking. This book is an excellent handbook for all kinds of standard ¯ow metering and it is an information-packed reference. It provides a clear explanation of a broad range of ¯owmeter; so the reader can easily understand the working principles of the various meters and also the performance and the advantages±disadvantages of each type. Unfortunately, there is only a very small discussion concerning ¯ow measurement in cryogenics. M. S uûer Karlsruhe Research center Institute of Technical Physics Karlsruhe, Germany E-mail address:
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