Fuel flow measurement

Hi community, not sure what topic to place this under but i'll try this one.

I'm wanting to measure diesel fuel flow in liters per hour with an Arduino.

The code should be simple enough but what I'm really struggling with is is identifying a source to purchase in line fuel flow sensors (or any other sensor method that might work).

I need 2 sensors with the following specs:

1 to suite with a 5/8" pipe
1 to suite a 3/8" pipe.
Min flow would start be around 5 lt per hour
Max flow needed would be min of 80 lt per hour
Accuracy - Pref + - 1 %

Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

It is very hard to find sensors that have any accuracy at the low levels that a Diesel engine uses and you also need to measure the fuel return flow and do a calculation to get the fuel used so you need 2 sensors and hence double the error.

If you know how much the injectors dispense, you could try counting injector solenoid pulses?

Here's one that seems suitable, but you'd have to choke down to 1/8" to get fuel through it:

image

pmagowan, yes, thats what Im finding. The supply and return flow requirement is why I specified 2 different sizes.

Doesn't have solenoids for pulses, its got an old school inline injector pump, Cummins 6bta.

Thanks Dave, they look expensive. They would not work on the in and out line as the max flow is too low. I guess that only leave's the placing one on each injector line, there would need to be 6 of them. Not sure of the cost but I'd say here would be commercially available option that would do the job for less.

Another though I had is a ultra sonic option. Has anyone come across an ultra sonic liquid flow rate sensor that may work for what?

:confused:

1800 cc/minute is 1.8 liters per minute or 108 liters per hour, which is more than your stated requirement of 80 liters per hours.

The main question in my mind is: Is the pressure drop across the device too much for the fuel system to handle? The sensor datasheet has the pressure drop as a function of flowrate and viscosity, so you could check...

And yeah, they're expensive, but it seems to be a hard problem....

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I was trying to do the same thing for fuel consumption but it is not worth it. Use a table of revs and fuel consumption to estimate and then periodically balance with a direct reading from the fuel tank. Sensors that work in this range are hard to come by and expensive and I suspect inaccurate because of the low flow rates and the compounding factor of flow and return

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Thanks Dave, sorry you are correct in that the flow rate is withing what I asked for, I guess I was mainly focusing on the small diameter , I don like the though of placing a 1/8" restriction into a 5/8" supply line. I doubt the engine would like that very much.

Back to the drawing board.

Thanks pmagowan, yea its starting to look a bit ambitious.

If I figure anything out, I'll come back here and let you know.

That's why I mentioned the pressure drop issue.

The data is available to figure out whether the engine would like it or not. You may be right, but you don't have to guess.

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