Velocity sensor with parabolic reflector
AssigneeAds
InventorJames S. Schutzbach
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Abstract
A velocity sensor and housing therefore, the velocity sensor provides a measurement of the velocity in a sewer manhole or chamber. The velocity sensor includes an ultrasonic transducer that emits a signal to measure the liquid below and may use an additional transducer or it is used by itself to detect the signal reflected from the surface. A parabolic reflector is designed and arranged to direct the emitted ultrasonic signal from the transducer to the surface with a linear beam while minimizing the beam spread. The return echo may either be measured directly or with the same transducer that was used to transmit the ultrasonic signal.
Claims11
A liquid velocity sensor system, comprising:
- an ultrasonic transmitter and a first ultrasonic transducer coupled to said ultrasonic transmitter for transmitting ultrasonic signals acoustically through an air medium;
- an ultrasonic receiver configured for receiving reflected ultrasonic signals resulting from said transmitted ultrasonic signals;
- a unitary system housing forming a circuit compartment and a parabolic acoustic reflector;
- said ultrasonic transmitter and said ultrasonic receiver housed in said circuit compartment in said unitary system housing;
- said first ultrasonic transducer disposed on a lateral side of said circuit compartment and directed to said parabolic acoustic reflector at a focus producing a diagonally directed beam from said parabolic acoustic reflector;
- wherein said parabolic acoustic reflector comprises an outer edge of said unitary system housing, said outer edge defined by an intersection of a conical pattern with a paraboloid, said conical pattern having a vertex at said first ultrasonic transducer and a conical angle from center to edge of the cone, based on a sensing characteristic of said first ultrasonic transducer, said paraboloid having an axis of symmetry directed in a desired beam direction and a focus at a center of said first ultrasonic transducer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.