PALAKKAD: The newly erected 2,000 mm test line in the large water flow lab has been successfully used for calibration of a multipath ultrasonic flow meter at the Fluid Control Research Institute (FCRI) laboratory in Kanjikode here on Friday.
This flow meter is to be used for measurement of discharge at Koteshwar Hydro Electric Project (KHEP) of M/s THDCIL (Tehri Hydro Development Corpn. India Ltd) Uttarakhand. KHEP is a 100MW x 4 power plant located at the downstream of Tehri Dam on river Bhagirathi. The FCRI is stated to perform Field Efficiency (FE) testing of this 100MW Unit Hydro-turbine in November. The achievement brings India ahead of all Asian countries in this field. This is the largest ever flow meter tested in laboratory conditions in India so far. The FCRI’s large water flow lab is also the largest NABL (National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories) accredited flow laboratory in India, said the Director of FCRI Jacob Chandapilla. It also happened to be the silver jubilee year of the FCRI at Kanjikode, Palakkad. The FCRI was set up under the Ministry of Heavy Industries in order to help industries get their flow products tested and certified in its different laboratories. The FCRI’s newly constructed large water flow laboratory is the largest in Asia, based on the size of pipes used for testing and calibration of flow meters and valves from various industries in India and overseas.
Chandapilla informed that the newly set up large water flow lab of FCRI is capable of undertaking testing and calibration of Flow Meters and Valves up to 3,000mm in diameter.