Quantitative analysis of flow profile characteristics for ultrasonic metering systems

A method for monitoring operation of an ultrasonic flow metering system, comprising:

• for each chordal path of a plurality of chordal paths of an ultrasonic flow meter:
• determining, for the chordal path, a reference chordal velocity ratio;
• determining, for the chordal path, a predicted chordal velocity based on the reference chordal velocity ratio for the chordal path and measured flow velocities for all other chordal paths of the plurality of chordal paths;
• determining a first estimated mean flow velocity for the ultrasonic meter, the first estimated mean flow velocity based on the predicted chordal velocity for the chordal path and the measured flow velocities for all other chordal paths of the plurality of chordal paths;
• determining, for each other chordal path of the plurality of chordal paths, a predicted chordal velocity ratio based on the measured flow velocity for the other chordal path and the first estimated mean flow velocity.

An ultrasonic flow metering system, comprising:

• a condition monitor configured to:
• determine a reference chordal velocity ratio for each of a plurality of chordal paths of an ultrasonic flow meter;
• and
• compute, for a first chordal path of the plurality of chordal paths, a first estimated mean flow velocity of the ultrasonic flow meter based on the measured velocity for the first chordal path and estimated chordal velocities for all other chordal paths of the plurality of chordal paths, the estimated chordal velocities estimated based on the measured velocity for the first chordal path and calculated velocities for all other chordal paths of the plurality of chordal paths, the calculated velocities calculated based on the measured velocity for the first chordal path and the reference chordal velocity ratios for all other chordal paths of the plurality of chordal paths.