High-pressure, high-temperature hollow sphere acoustic pressure sensor

A method of measuring pressure, comprising:

• transmitting a vibrational signal to a spherical core, the vibrational signal including a range of frequencies, thereby causing the spherical core to exhibit a resonance response at one or more frequencies within the range of frequencies;
• monitoring the spherical core for the resonance response according to a frequency response technique;
• applying an unknown pressure load to the spherical core;
• and
• calculating the unknown pressure load by comparing the peak shift under the unknown pressure load to a calibration generated by applying a series of known pressure loads to the spherical core to generate a series of resonance spectra corresponding to the series of known pressure loads, identifying a peak shift in the series of resonance spectra, and correlating a magnitude of the peak shift with the series of known pressure loads.

A sensor for measuring pressure, the sensor comprising:

• a spherical core;
• a transmitter configured to transmit vibrational signals to the spherical core;
• and
• a receiver on the opposite side of the spherical core from the transmitter, configured to receive the vibrational signals from the spherical core,
• wherein the vibrational signals cause the spherical core to resonate at a frequency that shifts under pressure, and the frequency shift is correlated to the pressure by comparison to a calibration.