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Single transceiver ultrasonic flow meter having an array of transducer elements

  • US 9,267,829 B2
  • Filed: 11/05/2013
  • Issued: 02/23/2016
  • Est. Priority Date: 07/19/2013
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A fluid flow measurement apparatus, comprising:

  • a beam-forming array of ultrasonic transducer elements capable of mounting at a single position at a wall of a pipe to provide directional control of ultrasonic energy emitted from the array of transducer elements and received at the array of transducer elements;

    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 such as to direct at least two outbound ultrasonic beams through a fluid flowing through the pipe to at least one acoustic mirror mounted at an inside wall of the pipe and to selectively activate at least one second sub-array of transducer elements to sense a reflected return signal associated with each of the at least two outbound ultrasonic beams at a selected angle; and

    a control and measurement module communicatively coupled to the beam-forming array of ultrasonic transducer elements to measure a time-of-flight (TOF) of the at least two outbound ultrasonic beams from emission from the array of ultrasonic transducer elements to reception of the reflected return signal at the array of ultrasonic transducer elements and to calculate a fluid flow speed as a function of a difference in TOF between a first of the at least two outbound ultrasonic beams capable of traversing a first path and a second of the at least two outbound ultrasonic beams capable of traversing a second path.

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