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US 4,729,243 AGranted
Mass-flow measuring instrument
AssigneeThe Singer Company
InventorsBernard Friedland, Douglas E. Williams, Irwin I. Sterman
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A device to measure the mass-flow rate of a fluid from the Coriolis force resulting from the flow of the fluid through the device during oscillation. The device comprises four U-shaped tubes wherein the phase and direction of flow in these tubes are arranged so as to cancel the errors due to motion of the instrument base.
Claims18
A device to measure the mass flow rate of a fluid from the Coriolis force resulting from the flow of the fluid through the device during oscillation thereof, comprising:
- (a) a base;
- (b) an even-numbered plurality of spaced-apart, substantially indentical looped conduits for carrying therethrough the fluid to be measured, each conduit secured to the base at the open end thereof in a cantilevered fashion and forming a plane at the looped end which is substantially parallel to similarly-formed planes of the other conduits and arranged, as one of a pair of conduits, for forming a tuning fork configuration with an adjacent conduit;
- (c) means for directing the flow of fluid through the conduits so that the flow direction in each conduit of a respective pair arranged in a tuning fork configuration is the same, the flow direction in a respective pair of conduits arranged in a tuning fork configuration is opposite to that in an adjacent pair, and the magnitude of the flow in each conduit is substantially equal;
- (d) means for oscillating the conduits perpendicular to the respective planes formed by the looped ends so that the amplitude of oscillation is substantially equal for all conduits and the phases of oscillation for all conduits are synchronized so each conduit of a respective pair arranged in a tuning fork configuration is 180 degrees out of phase with the other conduit of the respective pair, the respective first conduits of the conduit pairs are in phase with one another and the respective second conduits of the conduit pairs are in phase with one another;
- and
- (e) means for measuring the mass flow rate from the time differentials for each conduit between the crossing of one side of a respective conduit through a given reference plane and the crossing of the opposite side through the same reference plane.
3 more elements
A device to measure the mass flow rate of a fluid from the Coriolis force resulting from the flow of the fluid through the device during oscillation thereof, comprising:
- (a) a base;
- (b) four spaced-apart substantially identical looped conduits for carrying therethrough the fluid to be measured and arranged so that the first and second conduits and the third and fourth conduits form respective tuning fork configurations, each conduit secured to the base at the open end thereof in a cantilevered fashion and forming a plane at the looped end which is substantially parallel to similarly-formed planes of the other conduits;
- (c) means for directing the flow of fluid through the conduits so that the flow direction in each conduit of a respective pair arranged in a tuning fork configuration is the same, the flow direction in one pair of conduits arranged in a tuning fork configuration is opposite to that in the other pair, and the magnitude of the flow in each conduit is substantially equal;
- (d) means for oscillating the conduits perpendicular to the respective planes formed by the looped ends so that the amplitude of oscillation is substantially equal for all conduits and the phases of oscillation for all conduits are synchronized so each conduit of a respective pair arranged in a tuning fork configuration is 180 degrees out of phase with the other conduit of the respective pair, the first and third conduits are in phase with each other and the second and fourth conduits are in phase with each other;
- and
- (e) means for measuring the mass flow rate from the time differentials for each conduit between the crossing of one side of a respective conduit through a given reference plane and the crossing of the opposite side through the same reference plane.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.