Method and system for self-diagnosing of preassembled ultrasonic flowmeter

A method for self-diagnosing an ultrasonic flowmeter assembly which is designed for measuring a flow and/or temperature of a fluid through a channel, the ultrasonic flowmeter assembly comprising:

• a conduit section extending in an axial direction;
• an ultrasonic sensor comprising at least one ultrasonic transducer that is fixed to the conduit section, wherein the at least one ultrasonic transducer is configured to emit ultrasonic pulses into the conduit and to receive ultrasonic pulses after having travelled along at least one path in the conduit section and to output measurement data,
• the ultrasonic sensor further comprising a controller connected to the ultrasonic transducer for processing the measurement data,
• wherein a reference measurement and a test measurement each comprises emitting and receiving at least one ultrasonic pulse along at least one same or comparable path, the method comprising the method elements of:
• (a) providing a reference measurement data;
• (b) obtaining a test measurement data;
• (c) comparing the reference measurement data and the test measurement data, wherein the reference measurement data comprises a reference signal characteristic of at least one received ultrasonic pulse of the reference measurement, and the test measurement data comprises a test signal characteristic of at least one received ultrasonic pulse of the test measurement, wherein the reference measurement and the test measurement each comprises emitting and receiving at least one ultrasonic pulse along two different paths, comparing the reference measurement data and the test measurement data for both of the different paths, and wherein each one of the two different paths is given a weight factor defining the deviation between test and reference measurement, and the path with highest weight factor corresponding to least deviation is selected for flow measurement and/or fluid temperature measurement and/or channel dimension measurement.

A method for self-diagnosing an ultrasonic flowmeter assembly which is designed for measuring a flow and/or temperature of a fluid through a channel, the ultrasonic flowmeter assembly comprising:

• a conduit section extending in an axial direction;
• an ultrasonic sensor comprising at least one ultrasonic transducer that is fixed to the conduit section, wherein the at least one ultrasonic transducer is configured to emit ultrasonic pulses into the conduit and to receive ultrasonic pulses after having travelled along at least one path in the conduit section and to output measurement data,
• the ultrasonic sensor further comprising a controller connected to the ultrasonic transducer for processing the measurement data,
• wherein a reference measurement and a test measurement each comprises emitting and receiving at least one ultrasonic pulse along at least one same or comparable path, the method comprising the method elements of:
• (a) providing a reference measurement data;
• (b) obtaining a test measurement data;
• (c) comparing the reference measurement data and the test measurement data, wherein the reference measurement data comprises a reference signal characteristic of at least one received ultrasonic pulse of the reference measurement, and the test measurement data comprises a test signal characteristic of at least one received ultrasonic pulse of the test measurement,
• wherein the ultrasonic flowmeter assembly comprises a damper system, and in step c) a deviation of the test signal characteristic from the reference signal characteristic is used to detect a reversed installation direction of the ultrasonic flowmeter assembly, in which the ultrasonic sensor is arranged downstream of the damper system.