Device for determining and/or monitoring volume and/or mass flow of a medium

• US 7,448,282 B2
• Filed: 10/25/2005
• Issued: 11/11/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2004
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Endress+Hauser Flowtec AG (Endress+Hauser AG)
• Original Assignee: Endress+Hauser Flowtec AG (Endress+Hauser AG)
• Inventors: Berger, Andreas, Wiest, Achim
• Primary Examiner(s): THOMPSON, JEWEL VERGIE
• Application Number:
  US11/666,659
• Publication Number:
  US 20080060448A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,113 Days
• Field of Search: 738/612.8, 738/612.5, 738/612.6
• US Class Current: 73/861.28
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 1/662 Constructional details
• CPC Class Codes: G01P 5/24 by measuring the direct influence of the streaming fluid on the properties of a detecting acoustical wave

Abstract

A device for determining and/or monitoring volume and/or mass flow rate of a medium that flows in a direction of flow through a pipeline/measuring tube of inner diameter. The device comprises at least two ultrasonic transducers that emit and/or receive ultrasonic measuring signals along defined sonic paths and a control/evaluation device which determines the volume flow rate and/or the mass flow rate of the medium to be measured inside said pipeline/measuring tube based on the ultrasonic measuring signals according to the travel-time difference principle. In order to provide a multichannel ultrasonic flowmeter, at least one reflector element is placed in the interior of the pipeline/measuring tube. The reflector element has a defined distance from the inner surface of the pipeline/measuring tube and is placed within the sonic path of the ultrasound measuring signals running through the pipeline/measuring tube.

Claims

1. A device for ascertaining and/or monitoring volume and/or mass flow of a medium flowing through a pipeline/measuring tube of a given inner diameter, comprising:

at least two ultrasonic transducers, which emit and/or receive ultrasonic measuring signals along defined sound paths;

a control/evaluation unit, which ascertains volume and/or mass flow of the medium in the pipeline/measuring tube on the basis of the ultrasonic measuring signals according to the travel-time difference principle; and

at least one reflector element is provided in an interior of the pipeline/measuring tube, wherein;

said reflector element has a defined distance from an inner surface of the pipeline/measuring tube; and

said reflector element is arranged in a sound path of the ultrasonic measuring signals in the pipeline/measuring tube.

2. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the flow measuring device is a clamp-on flow measuring device or an inline measuring device integrated into the pipeline.

3. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

said at least one reflector element is a tubular reflector element.

4. The device as claimed in claim 3, wherein:

said tubular reflector element or elements is/are arranged concentrically in the pipeline/measuring tube.

5. The device as claimed in claim 3, wherein:

between an outer surface of said tubular reflector element and an inner surface of the pipeline/measuring tube, struts are provided, via which said tubular reflector element is fixed in the pipeline/measuring tube.

6. The device as claimed in claim 5, wherein:

said reflector element or elements are embodied with said struts in essentially T-shape.

7. The device as claimed in claim 6, wherein:

said ultrasonic transducers are so arranged that the ultrasonic measuring signals are coupleable via said struts into, or out of, an inner region of said tubular reflector element or said T-shaped reflector element.

8. The device as claimed in claim 4, wherein:

said tubular element has an n-polygonal cross section, wherein n is a natural number with n≧

3.

9. The device as claimed in claim 8, wherein:

said tubular, n-polygonal element is embodied such that its outer diameter is essentially equal to an inner diameter of the pipeline/measuring tube; and

said tubular element is connected at regions of vertices with the pipeline/measuring tube.

10. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

said reflector element or elements is/are disk-shaped reflector platelet(s), which are so embodied and/or arranged that they represent a negligible flow resistance for the flowing medium.

11. The device as claimed in claim 10, wherein:

said control/evaluation unit moves said reflector platelet or platelets via a mechanism into, respectively out of, the sound path of the ultrasonic measuring signals emitted and received by said ultrasonic transducers.

12. The device as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

said ultrasonic transducers are so embodied that they emit and/or receive ultrasonic measuring signals, or sound fields, over a predetermined spatial region.

13. The device as claimed in claim 12, wherein:

said ultrasonic transducers have a plurality of piezoelectric elements as emitting and/or receiving elements; and

emitting and/or receiving elements are arranged in an array.