US 5,747,701 AGranted

Ultrasonic vortex flowmeter having remote signal processing

AssigneeAsahi/America, Inc.

InventorsDavid Winsor Marsh, Lars Oscar Rosaen, Eric J. Rosaen

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

An improved ultrasonic vortex fluid flowmeter (10) includes a sensor housing (12) having a slip-on yoke portion which removably mates with a bluff body conduit connector (14) permanently installed in a fluid conduit to be monitored. An ultrasonic transmitter (22) and receiver (24) are respectively positioned within the legs of the yoke so as pass an ultrasonic wave through vortices (42) shed by the fluid as it flows by a bluff body (36). The slip-on yoke eliminates both the need to shut down fluid flow during meter servicing, and the potential for external contaminants entering the fluid. Control and processing circuitry (100) is disposed within a remotely located circuit housing (38) to improve overall isolation of the sensor from the fluid conduit being monitored. An Exclusive Or gate (44) is used in combination with an optimal phase range detecting means (108) for triggering a 90 degree phase shift whenever the phase difference between the transmitted wave and the received wave approaches 0 or 180 degrees.

Claims14

Dependent claims

A vortex flowmeter comprising:

a sensor housing connected about a fluid flow conduit;
means disposed within said conduit for generating vortices in the flow of fluid;
a transmitter positioned within said sensor housing for propagating an ultrasonic wave through said vortices;
an ultrasonic receiver positioned within said sensor housing for receiving said propagated wave;
a phase detector means disposed within a circuit housing remotely located from said sensor housing, said phase detector means being connected to said transmitter and receiver for producing an output representative of any phase difference between the transmitted wave and the received wave;
processor means disposed within said circuit housing and responsive to said phase detector means output for determining the fluid flow rate as a function of the phase difference caused by said vortices;
an optimal phase range detecting means disposed within said circuit housing and connected to said phase detector means for detecting if said phase difference is approximately 0 degrees or 180 degrees;
and
a phase shifting means disposed within said circuit housing and connected to said optimal phase range detecting means for shifting the phase of the transmitter signal supplied to said phase detecting means by substantially 90 degrees.

6 more elements

A vortex flowmeter for measuring the flow rate of a fluid in a fluid flow conduit, said vortex flowmeter comprising:

a bluff body conduit connector coupled into said fluid flow conduit and containing a bluff body disposed to produce vortices in the flow of fluid;
a single-piece yoke dimensioned to slip about and removably mate with said bluff body conduit connector, said yoke being formed to slip about and removably mate with said bluff body conduit connector in a direction transverse to the direction of the fluid flow;
an ultrasonic transmitter and receiver disposed within said yoke so as to be respectively positioned on opposing sides of said bluff body conduit connector, and with said transmitter propagating an ultrasonic wave through said vortices for receipt by said receiver;
a phase detector means disposed within a circuit housing remotely located from said yoke, said phase detector means being connected to said transmitter and receiver for producing an output representative of any phase difference between the transmitted wave and the received wave;
and
a processor means disposed within said remote circuit housing and responsive to said phase detector means output for determining the fluid flow rate as a function of the phase difference caused by said vortices.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.