Single transceiver ultrasonic flow meter having an array of transducer elements
First Claim
1. A fluid flow measurement apparatus, comprising:
- a beam-forming array of ultrasonic transducer elements capable of contacting at a single position at a wall of a pipe;
a beam-forming driver circuit communicatively coupled to the beam-forming array of ultrasonic transducer elements to selectively activate at least one first sub-array of the array of transducer elements and to selectively activate at least one second sub-array of transducer elements; and
a control and measurement module communicatively coupled to the beam-forming array of ultrasonic transducer elements to measure a time-of-flight (TOF), and to calculate a fluid flow speed as a function of a difference in TOF between a first ultrasonic beam traversing a first path and a second ultrasonic beam traversing a second path;
wherein the first path includes traveling from the single position at the wall of the pipe to an opposite side of the pipe and from the opposite side of the pipe at a first selected angle to the single position at the wall of the pipe;
wherein the second path includes traveling from the single position at the wall of the pipe to the opposite side of the pipe and from the opposite side of the pipe at a second selected angle to the single position at the wall of the pipe.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Elements of a single beam-forming array of ultrasonic transducer elements are selectively activated to direct two or more ultrasonic beams to a series of acoustic mirrors mounted to or fabricated at known locations at an inside surface of the pipe. The ultrasonic beams traverse measurement path segments at known angles through a fluid flowing through the pipe before being received back at the single transducer array. Fluid flow velocity along the fluid flow path is calculated as a function of a difference in time-of-flight (TOF) along first and second ultrasonic beam paths after subtracting TOF components contributed by known-length non-measurement path segments. The difference in TOF results from an additive downstream fluid flow velocity vector component along a first measurement path segment and a subtractive upstream fluid flow velocity vector component along a second measurement path segment.
21 Citations
8 Claims
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1. A fluid flow measurement apparatus, comprising:
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a beam-forming array of ultrasonic transducer elements capable of contacting at a single position at a wall of a pipe; a beam-forming driver circuit communicatively coupled to the beam-forming array of ultrasonic transducer elements to selectively activate at least one first sub-array of the array of transducer elements and to selectively activate at least one second sub-array of transducer elements; and a control and measurement module communicatively coupled to the beam-forming array of ultrasonic transducer elements to measure a time-of-flight (TOF), and to calculate a fluid flow speed as a function of a difference in TOF between a first ultrasonic beam traversing a first path and a second ultrasonic beam traversing a second path; wherein the first path includes traveling from the single position at the wall of the pipe to an opposite side of the pipe and from the opposite side of the pipe at a first selected angle to the single position at the wall of the pipe; wherein the second path includes traveling from the single position at the wall of the pipe to the opposite side of the pipe and from the opposite side of the pipe at a second selected angle to the single position at the wall of the pipe. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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Specification