In a typical physics class experiment to illustrate the phenomenon, a wire (conductor) connected across a galvanometer can be moved through the magnetic field of a horseshoe magnet and cause the galvanometer pointer to move. Moving the wire in the opposite direction will cause the pointer to move in the opposite direction due to the changing voltage polarity. Moving the wire faster will cause more voltage to be generated and the movement to move higher.
In magnetic flowmeters, a magnetic field is generated and channeled into the liquid flowing through the pipe. To accomplish this, the electromagnetic coils can be located outside of the pipe (flow tube), however the flow tube must be non-magnetic to allow penetration of the magnetic field into the liquid. Locating the coils internal to the flowmeter (closer to the liquid) can reduce the electrical power necessary to deliver the magnetic field, as well as reduce the size of the flowmeter and fabrication costs.
Following Faraday's Law, flow of a conductive liquid through the magnetic field will cause a voltage signal to be generated. This signal is sensed with electrodes located on the flow tube walls. When the coils are located externally, a non-conductive liner is installed inside the flow tube to electrically isolate the electrodes and prevent the signal from being shorted. For similar reasons, non-conductive materials are used to isolate the electrodes for internal coil designs.
The fluid itself is the conductor that will move (flow) through the magnetic field and generate a voltage signal at the electrodes. When the fluid moves faster, more voltage is generated. Faraday's Law states that the voltage generated is proportional to the movement of the flowing liquid. The transmitter processes the voltage signal to determine liquid flow.
The voltage signal will take the same general form as its electromagnetic excitation. When a magnetic flowmeter is excited by a sinusoidal magnetic field (AC waveform), the signal generated at the electrodes is also sinusoidal. In earlier designs, these signals were subject to a number of influences that affected measurement quality, including stray voltages in the process liquid, capacitive coupling between the signal and power circuits, capacitive coupling between interconnecting wiring, electrochemical voltage potential between the electrode and the process fluid, and inductive coupling of the magnets within the flowmeter. These flowmeters required a zero adjustment to compensate for these influences and the effect of electrode coating.
Turning the electromagnetic field on and off (DC waveform) causes the signal to resemble a square wave. When the electromagnetic field is on, the signal due to flow plus noise is measured. When the electromagnetic field is off, the signal due to only noise is measured. Subtracting these measurements cancels the effects of noise and eliminates the zero adjustment, reducing the abovementioned drift problems and improving performance.
Waveforms other than those described above are also in use.
Excerpted from The Consumer Guide to Magnetic Flowmeters
