24Flow elements with low beta ratio values tolerate greater disturbance in the flow pattern because they accelerate the flowstream to a greater degree. This may be best visualized by a thought experiment where we imagine an orifice plate with a very large beta ratio (i.e. one where the bore size is nearly as large as the pipe diameter): such an orifice plate would hardly accelerate the fluid at all, which would mean a mis-shapen flow profile entering the bore would probably remain mis-shapen exiting it. The acceleration imparted to a flowstream by a low-beta element tends to overshadow any asymmetries in the flow profile. However, there are disadvantages to using low-beta elements, one of them being increased permanent pressure loss which may translate to increased operating costs due to energy loss.