Ultrasonic measuring system and method of operation
AssigneeOhio University
InventorsWilliam Paul Jepson, Madan Gopal
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An ultrasonic measuring system is provided including a plurality of upstream and downstream ultrasonic transducers coupled to a multiflow pipeline and positioned along first and second cross sectional portions of the multiflow pipeline. A transducer control system is coupled to the upstream and downstream ultrasonic transducers for selective activation of the transducers. In one embodiment, the ultrasonic measuring system is utilized to determine a flow velocity of a selected fluid in a multiflow pipeline by generating and detecting velocimetric ultrasonic pulses in the selected fluid. In another embodiment, the ultrasonic measuring system is utilized to determine film heights of fluids flowing within the pipeline.
Claims19
An ultrasonic measuring system comprising:
- a plurality of upstream ultrasonic transducers coupled to a multiflow pipeline and positioned along a first cross sectional portion of a multiflow pipeline;
- a plurality of downstream ultrasonic transducers coupled to a multiflow pipeline and positioned along a second cross sectional portion of said multiflow pipeline;
- and
- a transducer control system coupled to said plurality of upstream ultrasonic transducers and said plurality of downstream ultrasonic transducers, wherein said transducer control system is operative to determine a flow velocity of a single fluid selected from a plurality of fluids present within said multiflow pipeline by generating an ultrasonic pulse in a first cross section of said pipeline and detecting said ultrasonic pulse in another cross section of said pipeline.
A method of operating an ultrasonic measuring system comprising the steps of:
- determining a first ultrasonic absorption coefficient corresponding to a first pipeline fluid occupying a first flow portion of a multiflow pipeline;
- determining a first ultrasonic propagation factor corresponding to a first interface between said first pipeline fluid and a second pipeline fluid occupying a second flow portion of the pipeline;
- generating an ultrasonic pulse at a lowermost portion of a cross section of the pipeline;
- detecting a first reflected ultrasonic pulse at said lowermost portion, said first reflected ultrasonic pulse being reflected from said interface between said first pipeline fluid and said second pipeline fluid;
- and
- calculating a first pipeline fluid film height based on the generated ultrasonic pulse, the first ultrasonic absorption coefficient, said first ultrasonic propagation factor, and the first reflected ultrasonic pulse.
A method of determining a flow velocity of a single fluid selected from a plurality of fluids present within a multiflow pipeline, said method comprising the steps of:
- generating an ultrasonic pulse at a selected one of a plurality of upstream ultrasonic transducers coupled to said multiflow pipeline along a first cross sectional portion of said multiflow pipeline;
- and
- detecting said ultrasonic pulse at a selected one of a plurality of downstream ultrasonic transducers coupled to said multiflow pipeline along a second cross sectional portion of said multiflow pipeline, wherein said selected upstream ultrasonic transducer and said selected downstream ultrasonic transducer are positioned within said single fluid.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.