Methods and apparatus for fluid flow measurement
First Claim
1. A fluid flow meter comprising:
- a sensor to detect an ultrasonic signal indicative of a velocity of a fluid flowing through a lumen and to provide a measurement signal indicative of the velocity based on the ultrasonic signal;
a memory to store a plurality of templates, each template corresponding to a different possible velocity of the fluid compared to other templates and having a wave shape substantially matching a wave shape of the ultrasonic signal, wherein the templates are filtered to match a distortion associated with the ultrasonic signal caused by at least one of the lumen and the fluid; and
a processor, communicatively coupled to the sensor and to the memory, to compute cross-correlation values for the measurement signal with each of the templates and to determine an estimated velocity of the fluid based on the cross-correlation values.
4 Assignments
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A fluid flow meter estimates the velocity of water or another fluid flowing through pipe by comparing measurements of the water velocity to one or more pre-determined templates. The fluid flow meter may collect measurement signals from one or more flow sensors, estimate the fluid velocity or flow rate by comparing the measurement signals to the template, and either store the comparison results in local memory, transmit the results to a remote memory or server, or both. In some embodiments, the fluid flow meter transmits the results to a server via a wireless interface. The transducers and processing system can be powered by a battery, a power line, or, for manifolds installed outdoors, a solar cell. Example transducers and processing systems may also have a passive wake-up feature for power reduction; that is, they may only draw power when water or another fluid flows through the pipe.
134 Citations
20 Claims
-
1. A fluid flow meter comprising:
-
a sensor to detect an ultrasonic signal indicative of a velocity of a fluid flowing through a lumen and to provide a measurement signal indicative of the velocity based on the ultrasonic signal; a memory to store a plurality of templates, each template corresponding to a different possible velocity of the fluid compared to other templates and having a wave shape substantially matching a wave shape of the ultrasonic signal, wherein the templates are filtered to match a distortion associated with the ultrasonic signal caused by at least one of the lumen and the fluid; and a processor, communicatively coupled to the sensor and to the memory, to compute cross-correlation values for the measurement signal with each of the templates and to determine an estimated velocity of the fluid based on the cross-correlation values. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
-
-
10. A method of estimating a velocity of a fluid flowing through a lumen, the method comprising:
-
(a) acquiring based on a received ultrasonic signal a measurement signal indicative of the velocity of the fluid flowing through the lumen; (b) computing cross-correlation values for the measurement signal with each of a plurality of templates, each template corresponding to a different possible velocity of the fluid compared to other templates and having a wave shape substantially matching a wave shape of the received ultrasonic signal, wherein the templates are filtered to match a distortion associated with the ultrasonic signal caused by at least one of the lumen and the fluid; and (c) determining an estimated velocity of the fluid based on the cross-correlation values. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16)
-
-
17. A method of installing a fluid flow meter, the fluid flow meter comprising a sensor to detect an ultrasonic signal indicative of a velocity of a fluid flowing through a lumen and to provide a measurement signal indicative of the velocity based on the ultrasonic signal, a memory to store a plurality of templates, each template corresponding to a different possible velocity of the fluid compared to other templates and having a wave shape substantially matching a wave shape of the ultrasonic signal, wherein the templates are filtered to match a distortion associated with the ultrasonic signal caused by at least one of the lumen and the fluid, and a processor, communicatively coupled to the sensor and to the memory, to compute cross-correlation values for the measurement signal with each of the templates and to estimate the velocity based on the cross-correlation values, the method comprising:
securing the fluid flow meter to an exterior of a structure that defines the lumen. - View Dependent Claims (18, 19, 20)
Specification