Ultrasonic system and technique for fluid characterization

A method for monitoring the solids concentration of a fluid flow comprising:

• performing a reflection mode pulsed wideband Doppler on a fluid flow containing solids at first and second different ultrasonic frequencies with an opposed pair of multi frequency ultrasonic transducers;
• forming a data set corresponding to a composite velocity profile from the reflection mode pulsed wideband Dopplers;
• determining at least one value corresponding to rheological property of the fluid flow from the data set and a measured pressure drop of the fluid flow, wherein the value corresponding to a rheological property provides an indication of the solids concentration of the fluid flow.

A system for monitoring the solids concentration of a fluid flow comprising:

• an opposed pair of multi frequency ultrasonic transducers for performing a reflection mode pulsed wideband Doppler on a fluid flow containing solids at first and second different ultrasonic frequencies;
• and
• a processing device coupled to the transducers operable to form a data set corresponding to a composite velocity profile from the reflection mode pulsed wideband Dopplers and operable to determine at least one value corresponding to rheological property of the fluid flow from the data set and a measured pressure drop of the fluid flow, wherein the value corresponding to a rheological property provides an indication of the solids concentration of the fluid flow.

A fluid processing system comprising:

• a pair of opposed multi frequency ultrasonic transducers surrounding a fluid flow wherein each of the ultrasonic transducers are selectively operable to perform reflection mode pulsed wideband Dopplers at at least two distinct frequencies and time of flight measurements at the two frequencies;
• and
• a processing apparatus coupled to the transducers operable to select performance of the Doppler and the time-of-flight measurements and to determine a composite velocity profile of the fluid flow from the reflection mode pulsed wideband Dopplers.