Investigation into sensitivity of Darlington boiler 2 feedwater flow calibration factor to boiler level control valve configuration

The Ultrasonic Cross-Correlation Flow Meter (USCCFM) has been used for regular feedwater flow calibration at Darlington NGS since the early nineties. Typical measurement repeatability over the duration of a calibration run (normally several weeks long) is within ±0.2%. However, it was recently noticed that BO2 calibration factor experienced sudden changes of close to 1%. The paper will describe several different approaches used for identifying the reason for the observed effect. The investigation has revealed that changes in USCCFM readings are due to the complicated geometry of BO2 feedwater piping and that its accuracy can be as high as a fraction of percent if several readings are averaged around the pipe. (author)