Method and apparatus for continuous tank monitoring
First Claim
1. A method of continuously monitoring the level of the liquid in a liquid dispensing system including an underground storage tank and a pump including a dispenser for providing an output indicative of the volume of liquid pumped out of the tank comprising the steps of:
- (a) monitoring the depth of the liquid in the tank;
(b) calculating the volume of the liquid stored in the tank from the depth of the liquid at selected time increments over a predetermined period of time;
(c) correcting the calculated volume at each time increment for any variation between actual volume and calculated volume resulting from conditions external to the tank;
(d) comparing any change in the corrected volume at each time increment over the predetermined period of time to the volume of liquid dispensed from the tank;
(e) producing a warning signal if the discrepancy between change in corrected volume and volume dispensed exceeds a predetermined limit;
(f) if the change in volume and the volume dispensed does not exceed the predetermined limit, calculating a correlation coefficient between the change in volume and the volume dispensed and storing the correlation coefficient to memory;
(g) repeating steps (a)-(f) over successive predetermined periods of time, storing the correlation coefficient from each period; and
(h) comparing the stored correlation coefficients from each time period.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Method and apparatus for continuously monitoring the volume of liquid in an underground storage tank and producing data for reconciling volume with throughput. This invention provides a set of algorithms and hardware which allows the loss of product caused by equipment failure or pilferage to be determined in one day or less. In order to accomplish this task this system requires a mechanism in each tank which is capable of indicating liquid depth and temperature to a very high degree of accuracy, a water table indicator, data collection equipment for the dispenser metering system, a local computer system for calculating several algorithms and a second computer, either local or remote, which calculates the daily reconciliation and finds the source of any indicated errors. This second computer also provides reports to the tank operator and activates an alarm system in case there is a loss due to a leak in any part of the tank system.
97 Citations
12 Claims
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1. A method of continuously monitoring the level of the liquid in a liquid dispensing system including an underground storage tank and a pump including a dispenser for providing an output indicative of the volume of liquid pumped out of the tank comprising the steps of:
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(a) monitoring the depth of the liquid in the tank; (b) calculating the volume of the liquid stored in the tank from the depth of the liquid at selected time increments over a predetermined period of time; (c) correcting the calculated volume at each time increment for any variation between actual volume and calculated volume resulting from conditions external to the tank; (d) comparing any change in the corrected volume at each time increment over the predetermined period of time to the volume of liquid dispensed from the tank; (e) producing a warning signal if the discrepancy between change in corrected volume and volume dispensed exceeds a predetermined limit; (f) if the change in volume and the volume dispensed does not exceed the predetermined limit, calculating a correlation coefficient between the change in volume and the volume dispensed and storing the correlation coefficient to memory; (g) repeating steps (a)-(f) over successive predetermined periods of time, storing the correlation coefficient from each period; and (h) comparing the stored correlation coefficients from each time period. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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Specification