Quantifying the impact of a buckled orifice plate

Live webinar: 13 May 2026, 10:30 BST

Orifice plates are trusted, standardised devices for oil and gas flow measurement, but when they deform, the financial consequences can be enormous.

In this technical webinar, Colin Lightbody shares his field experience of the impact of buckled orifice plates, before Dr Sandy Black describes how Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was used to quantify and understand the impact of the error. This real-world case study resulted in a mismeasurement worth more than $1 million per year.

In this session, we’ll cover:

How and why orifice plates buckle in operational service
The impact of buckling on differential pressure and flow calculation
Where CFD simulations can add value

Presenter

Sandy Black, Head of Consultancy

Sandy is the Head of Consultancy at TÜV SÜD National Engineering Laboratory.

He is responsible for the strategic growth and ongoing delivery of digital, CFD and flow consultancy services. His experience spans the energy industry in its widest sense, from oil & gas through to renewable energy solutions. In recent years his focus has been on the development of emissions estimation software, Flare-SURE, and analysis from flaring and venting applications through the use of CFD modelling and calculation algorithms.

Sandy has an MSci from the University of Glasgow and a PhD from the University of Leeds.

Host

Colin Lightbody, Head of Flow Measurement Consultancy