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S. S. Mulik et al.
1 Introduction
The flow monitoring is essential for assessing the movement of fluid. A lot of
measurement techniques are used to monitor the flow. The positive displacement
flow measurement technique is based on principle that it collects a fixed volume
of fluid and measures time enquired. On the other hand, some flow measurement
methods are based on forces generated by the flowing fluid as it conquers known
constraints, to indirectly measure the flow. The flow can be monitored by measuring
the velocity of fluid over a known area. For voluminous flows, the flow rate is calculated from the change in concentration of a dye or radioisotope [1–3]. The traditional
instrumentation like flow meter, venturi meter, orifice plate, and Pitot tube are well
known from decades. Advancement in the technology has adopted reforms in flow
measurement too. The flow meters triggered by magnetic field are assembled with
an electronic circuit. The impeller magnets of a positive displacement flow meter
triggers the latched circuit in sensor, which in turn emits and sends a square wave
pulse to a controller or any other monitoring devices [4]. Castaner et al. [5] used
an economical hot wire flow meter where it does not get exposed by the flow but,
however, due to the pins in the lead frame where thermic contact is provided. Ramyaa
et al. [6] developed a system which measures the pipes of the hose fluids flow rate,
and system made is also economical. The system comprises of PIC 16F877A microcontroller, detectors, fluid injectors, a power source, display, etc. This system can
be used in the farm which will prevent it from damaging the crops and also it is
easily accessible in the market and also economical than the other products. Sood
et al. [7] designed water flow meter system which saves water as well as the energy
while supplying water to the crops. In the system which consists of detectors called
Hall effect sensor, the rotation varies with the flow of water. These detector measures
output voltage which is relative to a magnetic strength of the input in the microcontroller. Hao and Garcia [8] developed a system which stored the kinetic energy in a
capacitor from a fluid which can be used expeditiously. Cai and Toral [9] presented
a research on measuring the individual phases in a hybrid network model where
the fluid flow is in the horizontal direction pipelines by the network that are neural
(KSOFM: The Kohonen self-organizing features map and MBPN: Multilayer back
propagation network). These techniques are used to categorize it by variation of
the fluids or the deviation of pressure values of various fluid flow regimes. Characteristics are retrieved from the variation and deviation of pressure values that are
unique to the individual phase flow rates in multiphase flow. It is reviewed that the
traditional fluid flow measurement methodologies are time consuming, bulky and
affected by pressure, temperature, and viscosity with self-draining characteristics. It
also requires appropriate observation followed by theoretical calculations. Also the
modern techniques are based on costlier proprietary software-hardware tools [10–
13]. This motivates developing a flow management system incorporating integration
of low-cost flow sensor YF-DN50 with the electronic control system built using
open-source instrumentation, i.e., Arduino, IDE, PLX DAQ. This system serves as
S. S. Mulik et al.
1 Introduction
The flow monitoring is essential for assessing the movement of fluid. A lot of
measurement techniques are used to monitor the flow. The positive displacement
flow measurement technique is based on principle that it collects a fixed volume
of fluid and measures time enquired. On the other hand, some flow measurement
methods are based on forces generated by the flowing fluid as it conquers known
constraints, to indirectly measure the flow. The flow can be monitored by measuring
the velocity of fluid over a known area. For voluminous flows, the flow rate is calculated from the change in concentration of a dye or radioisotope [1–3]. The traditional
instrumentation like flow meter, venturi meter, orifice plate, and Pitot tube are well
known from decades. Advancement in the technology has adopted reforms in flow
measurement too. The flow meters triggered by magnetic field are assembled with
an electronic circuit. The impeller magnets of a positive displacement flow meter
triggers the latched circuit in sensor, which in turn emits and sends a square wave
pulse to a controller or any other monitoring devices [4]. Castaner et al. [5] used
an economical hot wire flow meter where it does not get exposed by the flow but,
however, due to the pins in the lead frame where thermic contact is provided. Ramyaa
et al. [6] developed a system which measures the pipes of the hose fluids flow rate,
and system made is also economical. The system comprises of PIC 16F877A microcontroller, detectors, fluid injectors, a power source, display, etc. This system can
be used in the farm which will prevent it from damaging the crops and also it is
easily accessible in the market and also economical than the other products. Sood
et al. [7] designed water flow meter system which saves water as well as the energy
while supplying water to the crops. In the system which consists of detectors called
Hall effect sensor, the rotation varies with the flow of water. These detector measures
output voltage which is relative to a magnetic strength of the input in the microcontroller. Hao and Garcia [8] developed a system which stored the kinetic energy in a
capacitor from a fluid which can be used expeditiously. Cai and Toral [9] presented
a research on measuring the individual phases in a hybrid network model where
the fluid flow is in the horizontal direction pipelines by the network that are neural
(KSOFM: The Kohonen self-organizing features map and MBPN: Multilayer back
propagation network). These techniques are used to categorize it by variation of
the fluids or the deviation of pressure values of various fluid flow regimes. Characteristics are retrieved from the variation and deviation of pressure values that are
unique to the individual phase flow rates in multiphase flow. It is reviewed that the
traditional fluid flow measurement methodologies are time consuming, bulky and
affected by pressure, temperature, and viscosity with self-draining characteristics. It
also requires appropriate observation followed by theoretical calculations. Also the
modern techniques are based on costlier proprietary software-hardware tools [10–
13]. This motivates developing a flow management system incorporating integration
of low-cost flow sensor YF-DN50 with the electronic control system built using
open-source instrumentation, i.e., Arduino, IDE, PLX DAQ. This system serves as