Water flow rate is often a critical measurement for various power plant components and systems including cooling towers, pumps, and condensers. For over 40 years the Simplex-type Pitot Tube has been the industry standard for accurate water flow measurement, however the Simplex Tube is no longer commercially available. 

In addition, the results of from Simplex Tubes have long been suspect in the most challenging flow situations. Under contract to the Cooling Technology Institute (CTI), CleanAir conducted a research study to identify alternative pitot designs (CTI Case Study). This work culminated in 2017 with the introduction of the Elliptical Pitot Tip.

Advantages of Elliptical Pitot Tube

• Less sensitivity to Reynolds number
• Allows measurements closer to the pipe wall than other designs
• Better Accuracy in disturbed flow situations
• Flow measurements made with the elliptical pitot tube are much less sensitive to flow disturbances than the Simplex pitot tube resulting in more accurate flow measurements in less than ideal piping configurations.
• The study demonstrated that the coefficient for the elliptical tube pitot has a very low dependence on Reynolds number. This is a very desirable characteristic because it reduces the number of calibration points required to accurately determine the pitot coefficient and means that calibration data translates well to field settings.