Grey Water Measurement
AssigneeGCP Applied Technologies Inc.
InventorsMark Roberts, Nathan Tregger, Stephen Klaus
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Method and system to measure and monitor the grey water content in a rotating concrete mixer drum mixer truck using a sensor attached to the interior of the concrete mixer drum. By measuring the grey water content before a batching process takes place, the batched water (and cement content and admixture type and content) can be modified in order to maintain expected performance of the batched load in terms of both strength and rheology, or more simply, some or all of the grey water can be discharged from the concrete mixer drum before batching.
Claims30
A method for determining the grey water content remaining in a mixer drum from a previous concrete load that has been discharged from said mixer drum to provide accurate batching of a new concrete load into said mixer drum, said method comprising:
- (A) providing a concrete mixer drum having an interior volume and an axis of rotation;
- (B) providing at least one sensor mounted in a location in said interior volume of said mixer drum such that during a revolution of said mixer drum, the sensor separately achieves both a submerged state in any water in said interior and an unsubmerged state and generates a signal indicative of each said state;
- (C) rotating the concrete mixer drum such that the sensor separately achieves both a submerged state in any water in said interior and an unsubmerged state;
- (D) determining the angle between the axis of rotation of the concrete mixer drum and horizontal;
- (E) determining the submersion fraction or inverse fraction that the sensor achieves based on the rotation of Step (C);
- (F) providing data correlating the submersion fraction or inverse fraction to the corresponding volume of water in a vessel that is substantially geometrically similar to said mixer drum;
- (G) determining the grey water content in said mixer drum by comparing the submersion fraction determined in Step (E) with said data of Step (F) and the angle between the axis of rotation of the concrete mixer drum and horizontal determined in Step (D);
- and either
- (H) creating an alert if the grey water content detected is greater than a pre-defined limit, modifying the percentage of water in said new concrete load, based upon the grey water content determined in step (G), discharging at least a portion of the grey water from said mixer drum based upon the grey water content determined in step (G), or a combination thereof.
A method of determining the volume of grey water remaining in a vessel having an interior volume and an axis of rotation after a first cement load has been discharged from said vessel, said method comprising:
- rotating said vessel at least one complete revolution and determining the angle of the axis of rotation of said vessel with respect to horizontal;
- providing at least one sensor in said interior volume positioned so as to be submerged in the grey water in said vessel during a first portion of said one complete revolution and not submerged in the grey water in said vessel during a second portion of said one complete revolution, said at least one sensor generating a first signal when it is submerged and a second signal when it is not submerged;
- determining the ratio of either said first portion or said second portion to said one complete revolution;
- comparing said ratio to a predetermined ratio indicative of the volume of grey water in said vessel;
- and
- modifying the percentage of water in a second cement load to be loaded into said vessel based on said comparison.
A method of determining the volume of grey water remaining in a vessel having an interior volume and an axis of rotation after a first cement load has been discharged from said vessel, said method comprising:
- rotating said vessel at least one complete revolution and determining the angle of the axis of rotation of said vessel with respect to horizontal;
- providing at least one sensor in said interior volume positioned so as to be submerged in the grey water in said vessel during a first portion of said one complete revolution and not submerged in the grey water in said vessel during a second portion of said one complete revolution, said at least one sensor generating a first signal when it is submerged and a second signal when it is not submerged;
- determining the ratio of either said first portion or said second portion to said one complete revolution;
- comparing said ratio to a predetermined ratio indicative of the volume of grey water in said vessel;
- and
- discharging at least a portion of said grey water from said vessel.
A system for determining the volume of grey water remaining in a vessel having an interior volume and an axis of rotation after a first cement load has been discharged from said vessel, said system comprising:
- a motor for rotating said vessel at least one complete revolution so that the angle of the axis of rotation of said vessel with respect to horizontal can be determined;
- at least one sensor in said interior volume of said vessel positioned so as to be submerged in the grey water in said vessel during a first portion of said one complete revolution and not submerged in the grey water in said vessel during a second portion of said one complete revolution, said at least one sensor generating a first signal when it is submerged and a second signal when it is not submerged;
- a positioning determining device or a time determining device for determining a submersion fraction that is the portion of a full revolution at which the sensor is submerged or the portion of a full revolution at which the sensor is not submerged;
- a processor in communication with said at least one sensor to receive said first and second signals and with said positioning detecting device or said time determining device and configured to calculate a ratio of said first portion or said second portion to said one complete revolution and determine a volume of grey water in said vessel based on said ratio.
A system for determining the grey water content remaining in a vessel having an interior volume and an axis of rotation after a first cement load has been discharged from said vessel, said system comprising:
- a rotatable concrete mixer drum having an interior volume;
- at least one sensor in said interior volume of said rotatable concrete mixer drum and positioned such that during a revolution of said rotatable concrete mixer drum, the at least one sensor separately achieves both a submerged state in water in said interior volume and an unsubmerged state and generates a signal indicate of each such state;
- a position determining device or a time determining device for determining a submersion fraction that is the portion of a full revolution at which the sensor is submerged or the portion of a full revolution at which the sensor is not submerged;
- and
- a processor having a memory containing instructions, which when executed by said processor, allow the system to:
- determine the submersion fraction of a revolution of said rotatable concrete mixer drum during which said sensor is in said submerged state or determine the inverse submersion fraction of a revolution of said rotatable concrete mixer drum during which said sensor is in said unsubmerged state;
- correlate the submersion fraction or inverse submersion fraction to a corresponding volume of water in a vessel that is substantially geometrically similar to said concrete mixer drum;
- and determine the volume of grey water in said concrete mixer drum based on said correlation.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.