Fluid property sensors having superimposed vibrations
AssigneeRheonics GmbH
InventorsJoe Goodbread, Daniel Brunner, Sunil Kumar
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Fluid property sensors described herein may include a resonator configured to be immersed in a fluid or flowable medium and a vibrator coupled to the resonator, such that vibrations of the vibrator are transmitted to the resonator, e.g., to discourage and/or remove any buildup or deposits on the resonator and/or increase accuracy of the sensors. The frequency of the vibrator is configured to be substantially lower than the frequency of the resonator, such that operation of the resonator is not negatively affected. The vibrator may be located internal to, or external to, a chassis of the device.
Claims20
A device for measuring one or more properties of a flowable medium, the device comprising:
- a resonant fluid property sensor coupled to a sensor chassis, wherein the resonant fluid property sensor comprises a balanced torsional resonator configured to vibrate symmetrically around a nodal point at a first frequency;
- a support structure coupled to the sensor chassis, wherein the support structure is configured to support the sensor chassis when the resonant fluid property sensor is immersed in a flowable medium;
- and
- a vibrator coupled to the sensor chassis, wherein the vibrator is configured to vibrate at a second frequency and transmit vibrations through the chassis to the resonant fluid property sensor.
A method of measuring one or more fluid properties, the method comprising:
- submerging a resonant fluid property sensor comprising a balanced torsional resonator into a flowable medium;
- measuring one or more fluid properties of the flowable medium using the resonant fluid property sensor, wherein the fluid property sensor is configured to vibrate symmetrically around a nodal point at a resonant frequency;
- and
- transmitting vibrations through a sensor chassis to the resonant fluid property sensor at a second frequency lower than the resonant frequency.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.