Single transceiver ultrasonic flow meter having an array of transducer elements
First Claim
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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Accused Products
Abstract
Elements of a single beam-forming array of ultrasonic transducer elements are selectively activated to direct two or more ultrasonic beams to a series of acoustic mirrors mounted to or fabricated at known locations at an inside surface of the pipe. The ultrasonic beams traverse measurement path segments at known angles through a fluid flowing through the pipe before being received back at the single transducer array. Fluid flow velocity along the fluid flow path is calculated as a function of a difference in time-of-flight (TOF) along first and second ultrasonic beam paths after subtracting TOF components contributed by known-length non-measurement path segments. The difference in TOF results from an additive downstream fluid flow velocity vector component along a first measurement path segment and a subtractive upstream fluid flow velocity vector component along a second measurement path segment.
15 Citations
20 Claims
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1. A fluid flow measurement apparatus, comprising:
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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. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method of fluid flow measurement, comprising:
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selectively activating elements of an array of transducer elements capable of mounting at a single position at a wall of a pipe to create a first ultrasonic beam directed toward an acoustic mirror associated with a first series of acoustic mirrors at a first time; directing the first ultrasonic beam along a first path to include at least one first path measurement segment to traverse a fluid flowing through the pipe at an angle less than 90 degrees from a longitudinal axis of the pipe in a direction to include an additive downstream fluid flow velocity vector component; receiving a return of the first ultrasonic beam at the array of transducer elements at a second time; at the array of transducer elements, creating a second ultrasonic beam directed toward an acoustic mirror associated with a second series of acoustic mirrors at a third time; directing the second ultrasonic beam along a second path to include at least one second path measurement segment to traverse the fluid flowing through the pipe at the angle less than 90 degrees from the longitudinal axis of the pipe in a direction to include a subtractive upstream fluid flow velocity vector component; receiving a return of the second ultrasonic beam at the array of transducer elements at a fourth time; calculating a fluid flow speed as a function of a difference in time-of-flight (TOF) between the first and second ultrasonic beams, at least a portion of the difference in TOF being a result of the additive downstream fluid flow velocity vector component along the first path measurement segment and the subtractive upstream fluid flow velocity vector component along the second path measurement segment. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17)
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18. A method of fluid flow measurement, comprising:
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selectively activating elements of an array of transducer elements capable of mounting at a single position at a wall of a pipe to create a first ultrasonic beam and a second ultrasonic beam at a first time, the first ultrasonic beam directed toward an acoustic mirror associated with a first series of acoustic mirrors and the second ultrasonic beam directed toward an acoustic mirror associated with a second series of acoustic mirrors; directing the first ultrasonic beam along a first path to include at least one first path measurement segment to traverse a fluid flowing through the pipe at an angle less than 90 degrees from a longitudinal axis of the pipe in a direction to include an additive downstream fluid flow velocity vector component; receiving a return of the first ultrasonic beam at the array of transducer elements at a second time; directing the second ultrasonic beam along a second path to include at least one second path measurement segment to traverse the fluid flowing through the pipe at the angle less than 90 degrees from the longitudinal axis of the pipe in a direction to include a subtractive upstream fluid flow velocity vector component; receiving a return of the second ultrasonic beam at the array of transducer elements at a third time; and calculating a fluid flow speed as a function of a difference in time-of-flight (TOF) between the first and second ultrasonic beams, at least a portion of the difference in TOF being a result of the additive downstream fluid flow velocity vector component along the first path measurement segment and the subtractive upstream fluid flow velocity vector component along the second path measurement segment. - View Dependent Claims (19, 20)
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Specification