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AssigneeAuburn International, Inc.
InventorsRonald L. Dechene, David R. Day, Thomas B. Smith
Estimating the term…
Apparatus and process for measuring mass flow of a slurry mixture of two components of materials, such as a flow of catalyst solid particles (the first component) or droplets in a fluid carrier (the second component). The slurry mixture is added to a process stream (10) or batch reactor. The flow velocity and the volume fraction of one component are measured and combined with the known specific gravity, of the component being measured, and the physical dimensions of the pipe, in which the slurry mixture is flowing, to determine the mass flow of the component. The flow velocity is measured by correlating signals at two separated locations along the flow path, and the volume fraction is measured by combining the known dielectric constants of each of the materials in the mixture and the measured capacitance of the mixture. The capacitance is measured from electrodes which may be isolated from the flowing materials in some applications, but not isolated from the flowing materials in other applications. The temperature (9) and pressure (11) are compensated in the final calculation, and the mass flow result is used to control, via feedback, the amount of such materials delivered. Also, a subtraction technique to remove interfering power line noise is implemented to improve sensitivity.
In a chemical reaction process wherein selected flows of a material in a fluid carrier are fed to the reaction in metered amounts, an improved apparatus for on-line mass flow rate measuring, in a flowing two-component slurry mixture of the material in the liquid carrier, where the component being measured occupies a volume fraction and is of known specific gravity, said mixture flowing in a conduit of known cross section area and where the conduit has capacitive electrodes adjacent to the flow stream and triboelectric velocity probes spaced along the flow stream, comprising:
Apparatus for measuring mass flow of at least one component in an on-line, two component slurry mixture of materials, where one component occupies a volume fraction and is of known specific gravity, where the dielectric constants of said materials are known, said slurry flowing in a conduit of known cross section area and where the conduit has capacitive electrodes adjacent to the flow stream and triboelectric probes spaced along the flow stream, comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.