Fluid flow meter and corresponding flow measuring methods

• US 6,119,529 A
• Filed: 11/25/1997
• Issued: 09/19/2000
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/1996
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: SGS-Thomson Microelectronics, S.R.L. (STMicroelectronics NV)
• Original Assignee: SGS-Thomson Microelectronics, S.R.L. (STMicroelectronics NV)
• Inventors: Graziani, Salvatore, Baglio, Salvatore, Di Marco, Francesco, Lo Presti, Matteo
• Primary Examiner(s): PATEL, HARSHAD R
• Application Number:
  US08/978,335
• Time in Patent Office: 1,029 Days
• Field of Search: 73/204.11, 73/204.14, 73/204.25, 73/204.27, 73/861.68
• US Class Current: 73/861.68
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 1/696 Circuits therefor, e.g. constant-current flow meters
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 1/6965 comprising means to store calibration data for flow signal calculation or correction

Abstract

A fluid flow meter is of the type including a heated probe sensor of known electric resistance dipped into or swept by a fluid stream having a predetermined velocity. The sensor is capable of converting each flow velocity value to a voltage value, and is connected to a processor operating using fuzzy logic for producing the flow measurements. The sensor may be an NTC thermistor. The thermistor may be powered from a current generator, and the processor may include a neural network. The sensor may include at least two discrete thermistors, one being a hot thermistor and the other being a cold thermistor.

Claims

1. A fluid flow meter comprising:

a heated probe sensor of predetermined electrical resistance dipped into or swept by a fluid stream having a velocity, said heated probe sensor for converting each flow velocity value to a first voltage value;

a cold probe sensor of predetermined electrical resistance dipped into or swept by the fluid stream having the velocity, said cold probe sensor for converting each flow velocity value to a second voltage value; and

a processor operated on fuzzy logic and connected to said heated and cold probe sensors, said processor determining the velocity of the fluid stream based upon respective first and second sets of membership functions for the first and second voltage values;

said processor comprising a neural network trained to calculate the velocity of the fluid stream based upon first and second voltage values.

2. A meter according to claim 1, wherein at least one of said heated and cold probe sensors comprises a thermistor.

3. A meter according to claim 1, wherein at least one of said heated and cold probe sensors comprises an NTC thermistor.

4. A meter according to claim 3, further comprising a current generator powering said NTC thermistor of said heated probe sensor.

5. A fluid flow meter comprising:

a heated probe sensor of predetermined electrical resistance dipped into or swept by a fluid stream having a velocity, said heated probe sensor comprising an NTC thermistor for converting each flow velocity value to a first voltage value;

a cold probe sensor of predetermined electrical resistance dipped into or swept by the fluid stream having the velocity, said cold probe sensor for converting each flow velocity value to a second voltage value; and

a processor operated on fuzzy logic and connected to said heated and cold probe sensors, said processor determining the velocity of the fluid stream based upon respective first and second sets of membership functions for the first and second voltage values;

said processor comprising a neural network trained to calculate the velocity of the fluid stream based upon first and second voltage values.

6. A meter according to claim 5, further comprising a current generator powering said NTC thermistor of said heated probe sensor.

7. A suction hood comprising:

a fan for generating a fluid stream; and

a fluid flow meter comprising

a heated probe sensor of predetermined electrical resistance dipped into or swept by the fluid stream generated by said fan, said heated probe sensor for converting each flow velocity value to a first voltage value,

a cold probe sensor of predetermined electrical resistance dipped into or swept by the fluid stream generated by said fan, said cold probe sensor for converting each flow velocity value to a second voltage value, and

a processor operated on fuzzy logic and connected to said heated and cold probe sensors, said processor determining the velocity of the fluid stream based upon respective first and second sets of membership functions for the first and second voltage values;

said processor comprising a neural network trained to calculate the velocity of the fluid stream based upon first and second voltage values.

8. A suction hood according to claim 7, wherein at least one of said heated and cold probe sensors comprises a thermistor.

9. A suction hood according to claim 7, wherein at least one of said heated and cold probe sensors comprises an NTC thermistor.

10. A suction hood according to claim 9, further comprising a current generator powering said NTC thermistor of said heated probe sensor.

11. A method of measuring a fluid flow comprising the steps of:

positioning a heated probe sensor of predetermined electrical resistance to be swept by a fluid stream having a velocity to convert each flow velocity value to a first voltage value;

positioning a cold probe sensor of predetermined electrical resistance to be swept by the fluid stream having the velocity to convert each flow velocity value to a second voltage value; and

producing each flow measurement from a processor operated on fuzzy logic and connected to said heated and cold probe sensors, the processor determining the velocity of the fluid stream based upon respective first and second sets of membership functions for the first and second voltage values;

the processor comprising a neural network trained to calculate the velocity of the fluid stream based upon first and second voltage values.

12. A method according to claim 11, wherein the steps of positioning the heated and cold probe sensors comprises positioning a respective NTC thermistor.

13. A method according to claim 11, further comprising the step of providing a fan to generate a fluid stream for a suction hood, and wherein the steps of positioning the heated and cold probe sensors comprises positioning same in the fluid stream generated by the fan of the suction hood.