Calibration of prover tanks making use of a Coriolis mass flow meter as the master meter

VSL (National Metrology Institute of The Netherlands), Thijsseweg 11, 2629 JA Delft, The Netherlands

^⋆ Correspondence: fsmits@vsl.nl

Received: 5 May 2012
Accepted: 9 June 2012

Abstract

Calibration of volumetric proving tanks can be done using different methods. For the calibration of large proving tanks the master meter method can be used as a good alternative to the volumetric transfer method or the gravimetric method. When the master meter method is used in most cases a positive displacement meter is used. A better option is to make use a Coriolis mass flow meter as the master meter. Test data is presented of a calibration of a proving tank with a nominal volume of 500 L. Small repeatability figures can be obtained of consecutive calibration runs with a Coriolis mass flow meter. Also the linearity of the meter factor curve of the Coriolis mass flow meter makes this a better option for the master meter method.