Flow meter

US 6,874,480 B1
Filed: 02/13/2004
Issued: 04/05/2005
Est. Priority Date: 07/03/2000
Status: Expired due to Fees

First Claim

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1. A flow meter for bench testing fuel flow characteristics in a fuel injection system, which fuel injection system includes at least one fuel injector, comprising:

a measurement tube via which fuel flowing through the fuel injector passes;

a laser-Doppler anemometer generating a pair of laser beams intersecting in a control measurement volume in a center line of fuel flow through the measurement tube;

a velocity calculating mechanism connected to the laser-Doppler anemometer for calculating a series of instantaneous center line velocities of fuel flow through the measurement tube; and

a flow rate calculating mechanism connected to the velocity calculating mechanism for calculating a series of instantaneous volumetric flow rates in the measurement tube and for calculating a mass flow rate by integrating the series of instantaneous volumetric flow rates.

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Abstract

Various embodiments of the present invention provide a flow meter device having a laser Doppler anemometer (LDA) which measures the instantaneous center line velocity of fluid flow in a pipe. The flow meter may process the instantaneous velocity so obtained to compute the volumetric flow rate, mass rate, and/or other flow characteristics (e.g., as instantaneous quantities and/or integrated over a time interval) The flow meter may use an electronic processing method. The electronic processing method may provide essentially an exact solution to the Navier-Stokes equations for any periodically oscillating flow.

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38 Claims

1. A flow meter for bench testing fuel flow characteristics in a fuel injection system, which fuel injection system includes at least one fuel injector, comprising:
- a measurement tube via which fuel flowing through the fuel injector passes;
  
  a laser-Doppler anemometer generating a pair of laser beams intersecting in a control measurement volume in a center line of fuel flow through the measurement tube;
  
  a velocity calculating mechanism connected to the laser-Doppler anemometer for calculating a series of instantaneous center line velocities of fuel flow through the measurement tube; and
  
  a flow rate calculating mechanism connected to the velocity calculating mechanism for calculating a series of instantaneous volumetric flow rates in the measurement tube and for calculating a mass flow rate by integrating the series of instantaneous volumetric flow rates.
- View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14)
- - 2. The flow meter of claim 1, wherein the measurement tube is constructed at least in part from quartz glass.
  - 3. The flow meter of claim 2, wherein the quartz glass is substantially transparent.
  - 4. The flow meter of claim 1, further comprising an optical bench, wherein at least one of the measurement tube and the laser-Doppler anemometer is mounted to the optical bench.
  - 5. The flow meter of claim 1, wherein the laser-Doppler anemometer comprises a laser light source and a photodetector.
  - 6. The flow meter of claim 5, wherein the laser light source comprises a helium-neon laser and the photodetector comprises a photomultiplier tube.
  - 7. The flow meter of claim 5, wherein the laser light source comprises a laser diode and the photodetector comprises a PIN diode.
  - 8. The flow meter of claim 1, wherein the flow rate calculating mechanism includes means for:
    - (a) performing an inverse Fourier transform to calculate a series of harmonic coefficients c₀, . . . ,c_nfrom the series of instantaneous center line velocities;
      
      (b) computing a series of pressure coefficients p₀, . . . ,p_nfrom the harmonic coefficients c₀, . . . , c_nby solving F the equations $p_{0} = \frac{2 c_{o} v}{R^{2}} and p_{n} = \frac{c_{n} i n ω}{1 - \frac{1}{J_{0} (i^{3 / 2} {Ta}_{n})}}$ (c) computing a series of instantaneous volumetric flow rates from the pressure coefficients P₀, . . . ,P_n, by solving the equation $V (t) = \frac{π R^{2}}{2} (\frac{R^{2} p_{0}}{4 v} + \sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} {\frac{p_{n}}{n ω} i ⅇ^{ⅈ n ω t} [\frac{4 i^{1 / 2} J_{1} (i^{3 / 2} {Ta}_{n})}{{Ta}_{n} J_{0} (i^{3 / 2} {Ta}_{n})} - 2] + C . C .}); and$ (d) computing a mass flow rate by integrating the volumetric flow rates using the fluid density and cross sectional area of the measurement tube.
  - 9. The flow meter of claim 1, wherein the flow rate calculating mechanism includes means for:
    - (a) performing an inverse Fourier transform to calculate a first series of harmonic coefficients c₀, . . . ,c_nand a second series of harmonic coefficients c₀′
      
      , . . . ,c_n′
      
      from the series of instantaneous center line velocities, where the summation in the first series is incremented when the Stokes layer thickness is greater than ten times the optic interference fringe from the intersection of the two laser beams and the summation in the second series is incremented when the Stokes layer thickness is not greater than ten times the optic interference fringe from the intersection of the two laser beams;
      
      (b) computing a series of pressure coefficients p₀, . . . ,p_nand p₀′
      
      , . . . ,p_n′
      
      from the harmonic coefficients c₀, . . . , c_nand c₀′
      
      , . . . , c_n′
      
      by solving the equations $p_{o z} = 2 \frac{c_{o} v}{R^{2}}$ $p_{n z} = \frac{c_{n} n ω i}{[1 - \frac{1}{J_{0} (i^{3 / 2} {Ta}_{n})}]}, n \in [1, N_{δ}]$ $p_{n z}^{'} + \sqrt{p_{n z}^{'} p_{n r}^{'}} = \frac{2 c_{n}^{'} n ω i}{[1 - \frac{1}{J_{0} (i^{3 / 2} {Ta}_{n})}]}, n \in [N_{δ} + 1, N_{meas}];$ (c) computing a series of instantaneous volumetric flow rates from the pressure coefficients p₀, . . . ,p_nand p₀′
      
      , . . . ,p_n′
      
      by solving the equation $\dot{V} (t) = 2 π \int_{0}^{R} (\tilde{u} + \sqrt{\overline{u^{'} v^{'}}}) r ⅆ r = \frac{π R^{2}}{2} [\frac{p_{0} R^{2}}{4 v} + \sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} (\frac{p_{nx} - 〈 \frac{p_{nz}^{'}}{2} + \frac{\sqrt{p_{nz}^{'} p_{nz}^{'}}}{2} 〉}{n ω} {i ⅇ}^{ⅈ n ω t} [\frac{4 i^{1 / 2} J_{1} (i^{3 / 2} {Ta}_{n})}{{Ta}_{n} J_{0} (i^{3 / 2} {Ta}_{n})} - 2}) + C . C .]; and$ (d) computing a mass flow rate by integrating the volumetric flow rates using the fluid density and cross sectional area of the measurement tube.
  - 10. The flow meter of claim 1, wherein the flow rate calculating mechanism includes means for:
    - (a) performing an inverse Fourier transform on the series of instantaneous center line velocities to obtain a first series of harmonic coefficients c₀, . . . , c_n, and a second series of harmonic coefficients c₀′
      
      , . . . ,c_n′
      
      , where the summation in the first series is incremented when the Reynolds number is≦
      
      3000 and the summation in the second series is incremented when the Reynolds number is>
      
      3000;
      
      (b) computing a series of pressure coefficients p₀, . . . ,p_nand p₀′
      
      , . . . ,p_n′
      
      from the harmonic coefficients c₀, . . . ,c_nand c₀′
      
      , . . . ,c_n′
      
      by solving the equations $p_{o z} = 2 \frac{c_{o} v}{R^{2}}$ ${\dot{p}}_{n z} = \frac{c_{n} n ω i}{[1 - \frac{1}{J_{0} (i^{3 / 2} {Ta}_{n})}]}, n \in [1, N_{δ}]$ $p_{n z}^{'} + \sqrt{p_{n z}^{'} p_{n r}^{'}} = \frac{2 c_{n}^{'} n ω i}{[1 - \frac{1}{J_{0} (i^{3 / 2} {Ta}_{n})}]}, n \in [N_{δ} + 1, N_{meas}]; and$ (c) computing a series of instantaneous volumetric flow rates from the pressure coefficients p₀, . . . ,p_n, and p₀′
      
      , . . . ,p_n′
      
      by solving the equation $\dot{V} (t) = 2 π \int_{0}^{R} (\tilde{u} + \sqrt{\overline{u^{'} v^{'}}}) r ⅆ r = \frac{π R^{2}}{2} [\frac{p_{0} R^{2}}{4 v} + \sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} (\frac{{\dot{p}}_{nx} - 〈 \frac{p_{nz}^{'}}{2} + \frac{\sqrt{p_{nz}^{'} p_{nz}^{'}}}{2} 〉}{n ω} {i ⅇ}^{ⅈ n ω t} [\frac{4 i^{1 / 2} J_{1} (i^{3 / 2} {Ta}_{n})}{{Ta}_{n} J_{0} (i^{3 / 2} {Ta}_{n})} - 2}) + C . C .] .$
  - 11. The flow meter of claim 1, further comprising a fuel tank and a fuel injection pump.
  - 12. The flow meter of claim 11, further comprising a controller connected to the fuel pump for controlling the duration and frequency of a plurality of fuel injection pulses.
  - 13. The flow meter of claim 12, wherein the controller is capable of nanosecond pulse duration.
  - 14. The flow meter of claim 1, wherein at least one of the velocity calculating mechanism and the flow rate calculating mechanism includes software.

15. A flow meter for bench testing fuel flow characteristics in a fuel injection system, which fuel injection system includes at least one fuel injector, comprising:
- at least one of an input pipe for supplying fuel to the fuel injector and an output pipe for receiving fuel from the fuel injector;
  
  a measurement tube installed in one of the input pipe and the output pipe;
  
  a laser-Doppler anemometer generating a pair of laser beams intersecting in a control measurement volume in a center line of fuel flow through the measurement tube;
  
  a velocity calculating mechanism connected to the laser-Doppler anemometer for calculating a series of instantaneous center line velocities of fuel flow through the measurement tube; and
  
  a flow rate calculating mechanism connected to the velocity calculating mechanism for calculating a series of instantaneous volumetric flow rates in the measurement tube and for calculating a mass flow rate by integrating the series of instantaneous volumetric flow rates.
- View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38)
- - 16. The flow meter of claim 15, wherein the measurement tube is constructed at least in part from quartz glass.
  - 17. The flow meter of claim 16, wherein the quartz glass is substantially transparent.
  - 18. The flow meter of claim 15, further comprising an optical bench, wherein at least one of the measurement tube, the input pipe, the output pipe and the laser-Doppler anemometer is mounted to the optical bench.
  - 19. The flow meter of claim 15, wherein the laser-Doppler anemometer comprises a laser light source and a photodetector.
  - 20. The flow meter of claim 19, wherein the laser light source comprises a helium-neon laser and the photodetector comprises a photomultiplier tube.
  - 21. The flow meter of claim 19, wherein the laser light source comprises a laser diode and the photodetector comprises a PIN diode.
  - 22. The flow meter of claim 15, wherein the flow rate calculating mechanism includes means for:
    - (a) performing an inverse Fourier transform to calculate a series of harmonic coefficients c₀, . . . ,c_nfrom the series of instantaneous center line velocities;
      
      (b) computing a series of pressure coefficients p_o, . . . ,p_nfrom the harmonic coefficients c₀, . . . , c_nby solving the equations $p_{0} = \frac{2 c_{o} v}{R^{2}} and p_{n} = \frac{c_{n} i n ω}{1 - \frac{1}{J_{0} (i^{3 / 2} {Ta}_{n})}}$ (c) computing a series of instantaneous volumetric flow rates from the pressure coefficients p₀, . . . ,p_n, by solving the equation $V (t) = \frac{π R^{2}}{2} (\frac{R^{2} p_{0}}{4 v} + \sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} {\frac{p_{n}}{n ω} i ⅇ^{ⅈ n ω t} [\frac{4 i^{1 / 2} J_{1} (i^{3 / 2} {Ta}_{n})}{{Ta}_{n} J_{0} (i^{3 / 2} {Ta}_{n})} - 2] + C . C .}); and$ (d) computing a mass flow rate by integrating the volumetric flow rates using the fluid density and cross sectional area of the measurement tube.
  - 23. The flow meter of claim 15, wherein the flow rate calculating mechanism includes means for:
    - (a) performing an inverse Fourier transform to calculate a first series of harmonic coefficients c₀, . . . ,c_nand a second series of harmonic coefficients c₀′
      
      , . . . ,c_n′
      
      from the series of instantaneous center line velocities, where the summation in the first series is incremented when the Stokes layer thickness is greater than ten times the optic interference fringe from the intersection of the two laser beams and the summation in the second series is incremented when the Stokes layer thickness is not greater than ten times the optic interference fringe from the intersection of the two laser beams;
      
      (b) computing a series of pressure coefficients p₀, . . . ,p_nand p₀′
      
      , . . . ,p_n′
      
      from the harmonic coefficients c₀, . . . , c_nand c₀′
      
      , . . . ,c_n′
      
      by solving the equations $p_{o z} = 2 \frac{c_{o} v}{R^{2}}$ $p_{n z} = \frac{c_{n} n ω i}{[1 - \frac{1}{J_{0} (i^{3 / 2} {Ta}_{n})}]}, n \in [1, N_{δ}]$ $p_{n z}^{'} + \sqrt{p_{n z}^{'} p_{n r}^{'}} = \frac{2 c_{n}^{'} n ω i}{[1 - \frac{1}{J_{0} (i^{3 / 2} {Ta}_{n})}]}, n \in [N_{δ} + 1, N_{meas}];$ (c) computing a series of instantaneous volumetric flow rates from the pressure coefficients p₀, . . . ,p_nand p₀′
      
      , . . . ,p_n′
      
      by solving the equation $\dot{V} (t) = 2 π \int_{0}^{R} (\tilde{u} + \sqrt{\overline{u^{'} v^{'}}}) r ⅆ r = \frac{π R^{2}}{2} [\frac{p_{0} R^{2}}{4 v} + \sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} (\frac{{\dot{p}}_{nx} - 〈 \frac{p_{nz}^{'}}{2} + \frac{\sqrt{p_{nz}^{'} p_{nz}^{'}}}{2} 〉}{n ω} {i ⅇ}^{ⅈ n ω t} [\frac{4 i^{1 / 2} J_{1} (i^{3 / 2} {Ta}_{n})}{{Ta}_{n} J_{0} (i^{3 / 2} {Ta}_{n})} - 2}) + C . C .]; and$ (d) computing a mass flow rate by integrating the volumetric flow rates using the fluid density and cross sectional area of the measurement tube.
  - 24. The flow meter of claim 15, wherein the flow rate calculating mechanism includes means for:
    - (a) performing an inverse Fourier transform on the series of instantaneous center line velocities to obtain a first series of harmonic coefficients c₀, . . . , c_n, and a second series of harmonic coefficients c₀′
      
      , . . . ,c_n′
      
      , where the summation in the first series is incremented when the Reynolds number is≦
      
      3000 and the summation in the second series is incremented when the Reynolds number is>
      
      3000;
      
      (b) computing a series of pressure coefficients p₀, . . . ,p_nand p₀′
      
      , . . . p_n′
      
      from the harmonic coefficients c₀, . . . ,c_nand c₀′
      
      , . . . ,c_n′
      
      by solving the equations $p_{o z} = 2 \frac{c_{o} v}{R^{2}}$ ${\dot{p}}_{n z} = \frac{c_{n} n ω i}{[1 - \frac{1}{J_{0} (i^{3 / 2} {Ta}_{n})}]}, n \in [1, N_{δ}]$ $p_{n z}^{'} + \sqrt{p_{n z}^{'} p_{n r}^{'}} = \frac{2 c_{n}^{'} n ω i}{[1 - \frac{1}{J_{0} (i^{3 / 2} {Ta}_{n})}]}, n \in [N_{δ} + 1, N_{meas}]; and$ (c) computing a series of instantaneous volumetric flow rates from the pressure coefficients p₀, . . . ,p_n, and p₀′
      
      , . . . ,p_n′
      
      by solving the equation $\dot{V} (t) = 2 π \int_{0}^{R} (\overline{u} + \sqrt{\overline{u^{'} v^{'}}}) r ⅆ r = \frac{π R^{2}}{2} [\frac{p_{o} R^{2}}{4 v} + \sum_{n = 1}^{\infty} (\frac{p_{nz} - 〈 \frac{p_{nx}^{'}}{2} + \frac{\sqrt{p_{nz}^{'} p_{nz}^{'}}}{2} 〉}{n ω} {i ⅇ}^{ⅈ π ω t} {\frac{4 i^{1 / 2} J_{1} (i^{3 / 2} {Ta}_{n})}{{Ta}_{n} J_{0} (i^{3 / 2} {Ta}_{n})} - 2}) + C . C .] .$
  - 25. The flow meter of claim 15, further comprising a fuel tank and a fuel injection pump.
  - 26. The flow meter of claim 25, further comprising a controller connected to the fuel pump for controlling the duration and frequency of a plurality of fuel injection pulses.
  - 27. The flow meter of claim 26, wherein the controller is capable of nanosecond pulse duration.
  - 28. The flow meter of claim 15, wherein:
    - (a) a cross-section of the input pipe is selected from the group of circular, oval, square and rectangular;
      
      (b) a cross-section of the output pipe is selected from the group of circular, oval, square and rectangular; and
      
      (c) a cross-section of the measurement tube is selected from the group of circular, oval, square and rectangular.
  - 29. The flow meter of claim 15, wherein:
    - (a) the input pipe is included; and
      
      (b) the measurement tube is installed in the input pipe.
  - 30. The flow meter of claim 29, wherein the output pipe is not included.
  - 31. The flow meter of claim 15, wherein:
    - (a) the output pipe is included; and
      
      (b) the measurement tube is installed in the output pipe.
  - 32. The flow meter of claim 31, wherein the input pipe is not included.
  - 33. The flow meter of claim 31, further comprising a check valve installed in the output pipe to control backpressure in the output pipe.
  - 34. The flow meter of claim 31, further comprising an orifice plate installed in the output pipe to control pressure in the output pipe.
  - 35. The flow meter of claim 31, further comprising:
    - (a) a check valve installed in the output pipe to control backpressure in the output pipe; and
      
      (b) an orifice plate installed in the output pipe to control pressure in the output pipe;
      
      wherein;
      
      (i) the output pipe has a first end and a second end, which first end is connected to the fuel injector;
      
      (ii) the check valve is installed at the second end of the output pipe; and
      
      (iii) the orifice plate is installed at a position in the output pipe between the check valve and the measurement tube.
  - 36. The flow meter of claim 35, further comprising a fuel injector tip holder for connecting an output tip of the fuel injector to the output pipe.
  - 37. The flow meter of claim 36, further comprising a pressure transducer disposed within the fuel injector tip holder.
  - 38. The flow meter of claim 15, wherein at least one of the velocity calculating mechanism and the flow rate calculating mechanism includes software.

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Current Assignee
Combustion Dynamics Corporation
Original Assignee
Combustion Dynamics Corporation
Inventors
Ismailov, Murad M.
Primary Examiner(s)
ARGENBRIGHT, TONY MICHAEL

Application Number

US10/779,123
Time in Patent Office

417 Days
Field of Search

123/478, 123/480, 123/494, 731/19.A, 738/61, 250/574, 356/28, 356/28.5
US Class Current

123/494
CPC Class Codes

F02B 2075/125   Direct injection in the com...

F02D 2041/288   for performing a transforma...

F02D 2041/389   for injecting directly into...

F02D 2200/0614   Actual fuel mass or fuel in...

F02D 41/40   with means for controlling ...

F02M 2200/24   Fuel-injection apparatus wi...

F02M 51/0678   all portions having fuel pa...

F02M 55/02   Conduits between injection ...

F02M 61/163   Means being injection-valve...

F02M 61/18   Injection nozzles, e.g. hav...

F02M 63/00   Other fuel-injection appara...

F02M 65/00   Testing fuel-injection appa...

G01F 1/661   using light

G01F 1/86   Indirect mass flowmeters, e...

Y02T 10/12   Improving ICE efficiencies

Y02T 10/40   Engine management systems

Flow meter

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Abstract

441 Citations

38 Claims

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Flow meter

First Claim

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Abstract

441 Citations

38 Claims

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