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US 5,400,646 AGranted
Fluid containment monitoring system
AssigneeMEPCO, Inc.
InventorsDonald A. Kraus, Leale E. Streebin, John E. Fagan, Anthony W. Howl
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An electronic monitoring system to accurately measure a vacuum in an interstice between inner and outer walls of a dual-wall container or pipe which allows highly accurate analysis of vacuum differential to discover and confirm a leak in either the inner or outer walls of the container or pipe within minutes.
Claims20
A fluid containment and monitoring system comprising:
- a product tank having an inner wall, an outer wall and an interstice defined between the inner wall and the outer wall thereof;
- a reference tank having a reference volume therein;
- a pneumatic line connecting said reference tank with the interstice of said product tank, wherein the interstice, the reference volume and said pneumatic line define a system volume;
- a tank valve installed in said pneumatic line;
- a vacuum source connected to said reference tank for establishing a predetermined negative system pressure in the system volume when the tank valve is open;
- differential transducer means, connected to said pneumatic line, for providing a differential pressure reading between two points in said pneumatic line on opposite sides of said tank valve;
- and
- processor means, operatively connected to said differential transducer means, for obtaining the differential pressure reading from said transducer means at predetermined time intervals when the tank valve is closed and for analyzing changes in the differential pressure reading over time to detect fluid leakage in the inner wall or outer wall of said product tank.
5 more elements
A method of monitoring a fluid containment for fluid leakage, the steps of the method comprising:
- providing a double-walled containment having inner walls and outer walls defining a substantially air-tight interstice therebetween, the inner walls defining a product chamber for containing fluid product;
- providing a reference tank having a reference volume therein;
- placing the reference volume in communication with the interstice of the containment;
- establishing a predetermined negative pressure within the reference volume and the interstice;
- isolating the reference volume from the interstice;
- measuring a differential pressure between the reference volume and the interstice at predetermined time intervals;
- analyzing the differential pressure at the predetermined time intervals to detect fluid leakage in the inner or outer walls of the containment.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.