Realization, characterization and measurements of standard leak artefacts

• Primary standards for gas flow measurements.
• Realization of leak elements having defined geometry.
• Calibration of reference leaks.
• Data base of gas flow delivered by several reference leaks.

Predictability of gas flows through leak elements in various conditions (geometry of leak elements, gas species, pressure) from the results of only a few measurements in a specific configuration is an issue for the gas dynamics theory. This paper aims to provide results of leak flow rate measurements performed by national metrology institutes (NMIs) in the framework of the European project JRP IND12. Leak artefacts made of different materials with well defined geometry, were calibrated by means of primary standards with different gas species flowing to vacuum or atmospheric pressure. The numerous collected data are made available to allow the experts in gas dynamics to use this large database to improve the knowledge of gas flow in narrow ducts in terms of predictability for different gas species and find a simple model to describe the gas flow inside microchannels.