Problems in the calibration of pipe prover

At crude oil custody transfer, pipe prover is the standard device for calibrating flowmeter on site, while calibration is a critical means to determine the standard volume of pipe prover and its repeatability and reproducibility. In view of aspects in calibration, this paper expounds the causes and effects of some possible minor problems therein and relevant improvements or suggestions after screening out certain representative points in practices, in order to successfully complete the calibration and obtain accurate and reliable standard volume of pipe prover. In actual operation, any element in personnel, environment or equipment may obstacle the process of calibration, and a lot of minor problems that are often ignorable, like leakage control, air impermeability of centrifugal pump and heat generation, may lead the calibration process in trouble. In this case, a lot of time, manpower or material is spent, and wrong calibration results may be obtained.