Method for measuring reactor bed level from active acoustic measurement and analysis
First Claim
1. A method to determine the fill level of material inside a reactor vessel that includes liquid and solid comprising relating a shift of the natural frequencies of wall vibrations to fill level wherein a relationship between frequency shift of wall vibrations and fill level is determined bya) inducing vibration on the wall of said reactor vessel from an external source,b) measuring the vibration signals of said reactor vessel wall as a function of frequency and modal vibration amplitude of said reactor vessel wall, andc) relating the combination of the frequency and the modal vibration amplitude of said reactor wall to the fill level of said liquid and solid;
- wherein the method utilizes a system consisting of;
an acoustic/vibration excitation source,one or more vibration receivers,a temperature reduction rod for each receiver,a signal conditioning and acquisition unit, anda data analysis and display unit, andwherein the relating of the combination of the frequency and the modal vibration amplitude of said reactor wall to the fill level is independent of a location of the one or more vibration receivers on said reactor wall.
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Abstract
The present invention is a non-intrusive method to determine the fluid level in a vessel. In a preferred embodiment, the vessel is a delayed coker drum in a refinery. Waves are generated in the vessel from an outside source. For wall vibration generated in the frequency range of 1-20,000 Hz, accelerometers on the exterior wall of the vessel measures the frequency of the vibration modes of the vessel. The fluid level can be related to the frequency of the vibration mode.
22 Citations
16 Claims
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1. A method to determine the fill level of material inside a reactor vessel that includes liquid and solid comprising relating a shift of the natural frequencies of wall vibrations to fill level wherein a relationship between frequency shift of wall vibrations and fill level is determined by
a) inducing vibration on the wall of said reactor vessel from an external source, b) measuring the vibration signals of said reactor vessel wall as a function of frequency and modal vibration amplitude of said reactor vessel wall, and c) relating the combination of the frequency and the modal vibration amplitude of said reactor wall to the fill level of said liquid and solid; -
wherein the method utilizes a system consisting of; an acoustic/vibration excitation source, one or more vibration receivers, a temperature reduction rod for each receiver, a signal conditioning and acquisition unit, and a data analysis and display unit, and wherein the relating of the combination of the frequency and the modal vibration amplitude of said reactor wall to the fill level is independent of a location of the one or more vibration receivers on said reactor wall. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method to determine the fill level of material inside a reactor vessel that includes liquid and solid comprising relating attenuation of wall vibrations to fill level wherein a relationship between the attenuation of wall vibrations and fill level is determined by
a) inducing vibration on the wall of said reactor vessel from an external source, the external source being located at a height above a maximum fill level for said reactor vessel, b) measuring the vibration signals of said reactor vessel wall on the exterior wall of said reactor vessel as a function of frequency, c) selecting a vibration mode, and d) relating the modal vibration amplitude of the measured vibration signals of said reactor vessel wall to the fill level of said liquid and solid, wherein the relation between the frequency shift and fill level, and the relation between the modal vibration amplitude and fill level are combined to determine fill level.
Specification