Fully automated calibration for acoustic pyrometry

A system for calibrating transceiver positions for acoustic pyrometry, comprising:

• an acoustic pyrometry measuring vessel;
• a plurality of transceivers disposed about a perimeter of said measuring vessel, said transceivers configured to transmit an acoustic wave signal upon receipt of an electric signal and to receive acoustic wave signals and convert a received acoustic wave signal into an electric signal;
• and
• a computer processor configured to automatically perform the calibration by transmitting and receiving the electric signals sent to and received from the transceivers, determining time-of-flight (TOFs) Δti,j measurements from each pair i,j of transceivers inside said acoustic pyrometry measuring vessel, to estimate a radius of said acoustic pyrometry measuring vessel from an average of the acquired TOF measurements, and to using the estimated radius of said acoustic pyrometry measuring vessel to estimate errors Δθj of displacement angles of the transceivers,
• wherein said computer processor is configured to determine a speed of sound in said acoustic pyrometry measuring vessel from placement of the acoustic pyrometry measuring vessel in a known constant temperature and a known gas composition of a gas inside said acoustic pyrometry measuring vessel,
• wherein the errors Δθj of displacement angles of the transceivers from the calibration are utilized to accurately determine a temperature within the acoustic pyrometry measuring vessel when the temperature inside the acoustic pyrometry measuring vessel is not known, and
• wherein the determined temperature within the acoustic pyrometry measuring vessel is displayed on a display.

A non-transitory program storage device readable by a computer, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executed by the computer to perform the method steps for calibrating transceiver positions inside an acoustic pyrometry measuring vessel that contains a plurality of transceivers, the method comprising the steps of:

• placing the acoustic pyrometry measuring vessel in a space of a known constant temperature containing a gas of known composition and allowing the acoustic pyrometry measuring vessel to equilibrate
• determining a speed of sound in said acoustic pyrometry measuring vessel from the known constant temperature and the constant gas composition of the gas inside said acoustic pyrometry measuring vessel;
• acquiring time-of-flight (TOFs) Δti,j measurements from a plurality of pairs i,j of transceivers inside said acoustic pyrometry measuring vessel;
• estimating a radius of said acoustic pyrometry measuring vessel from an average of the acquired TOF measurements;
• using the estimated radius of said acoustic pyrometry measuring vessel to estimate errors Δθj of displacement angles of the transceivers;
• and
• utilizing errors Δθj of displacement angles of the transceivers during the calibration to accurately determine a temperature within the acoustic pyrometry measuring vessel when the temperature inside the acoustic pyrometry measuring vessel is not known,
• wherein the determined temperature within the acoustic pyrometry measuring vessel is displayed on a display.