Positive displacement flow measurement device
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsJames Fredric Wiedenhoefer, Adam Rasheed
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A positive displacement flow measurement device includes a rotor portion positioned inside a casing portion to act as a least area rotor that captures a volume of material and moves the volume of material along the length of the device. The device is coupled to a means for counting the number of revolutions of the rotor portion and/or the casing portion over a predetermined period of time. In one embodiment, the counting means comprises a shaft encoder that measures the angular position of a shaft of the rotor portion and sends a signal to a processor of a computing device that determines the volume of material flowing through the device.
Claims12
A positive displacement flow measurement device;
- comprising:
- a positive displacement flow device comprising:
- a casing portion having a plurality of grooves formed on an inner surface of said casing portion;
- and
- a rotor portion having a plurality of lobes formed on an outer surface of said rotor portion, where said rotor portion is positioned adjacent to said inner surface of said casing portion such that said lobes interact with said grooves, wherein said interaction of said lobes with said grooves creates a plurality of contact points between said lobes and grooves which travel around a perimeter of, and along a length of, said rotor portion as said rotor portion rotates about an axis relative to said casing portion, and wherein said interaction captures a volume of material and moves said volume along a length of said device due to said relative rotation;
- and
- means for counting a number of revolutions of one of the rotor portion and the casing portion over a predetermined period of time.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.