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US 4,361,041 AGranted
Non-intrusive ultrasonic liquid-in-line detector for small diameter tubes
AssigneeThe United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy
InventorThomas C. Piper
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An arrangement for deleting liquid in a line, using non-intrusive ultrasonic techniques is disclosed. In this arrangement, four piezoelectric crystals are arranged in pairs about a 0.072 inch o.d. pipe. An ultrasonic tone burst is transmitted along the pipe, between crystal pairs, and the amplitude of the received tone burst indicates the absence/presence of liquid in the pipe.
Claims9
A means for detecting liquid in a conduit comprising:
- at least one driving transducer electrically and mechanically connected to a first portion of an outside surface of the conduit;
- at least one receiving transducer electrically and mechanically connected to a second spaced apart portion of an outside surface of the conduit;
- means for exciting said drive transducer with an ultrasonic tone burst such that said conduit vibrates in an undulatory motion, said tone burst being transmitted to said receiver transducer;
- and
- means for measuring the amplitude of said tone burst at an output of said receiver transducer while excluding responses of said receiver transducer after said tone burst is received, whereby the presence of a liquid in said conduit is detected.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.