Correcting for two-phase flow in a digital flowmeter
AssigneeInvensys Systems, Inc.
InventorsManus P. Henry, Maria Jesus de la Fuente
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A flowmeter is disclosed. The flowmeter includes a vibratable conduit, and a driver connected to the conduit that is operable to impart motion to the conduit. A sensor is connected to the conduit and is operable to sense the motion of the conduit and generate a sensor signal. A controller is connected to receive the sensor signal. The controller is operable to detect a single-phase flow condition and process the sensor signal using a first process during the single-phase flow condition to generate a validated mass-flow measurement. The controller is also operable to detect a two-phase flow condition and process the sensor signal using a second process during the two-phase flow condition to generate the validated mass-flow measurement.
Claims55
A flowmeter comprising:
- a vibratable conduit;
- a driver connected to the conduit and operable to impart motion to the conduit;
- a sensor connected to the conduit and operable to sense the motion of the conduit and generate a sensor signal;
- and
- a controller connected to receive the sensor signal, the controller being operable to:
- generate a raw mass-flow measurement from the sensor signal;
- detect a single-phase flow condition and process the raw mass-flow measurement using a first process during the single-phase flow condition to generate a first mass-flow measurement;
- and
- detect a two-phase flow condition and correct the raw mass-flow measurement using a second process during the two-phase flow condition to generate a second mass-flow measurement.
A flowmeter comprising:
- a vibratable conduit;
- a driver connected to the conduit and operable to impart motion to the conduit;
- a sensor connected to the conduit and operable to sense the motion of the conduit and generate a sensor signal;
- and
- a controller connected to receive the sensor signal, the controller being operable to:
- detect a single-phase flow condition and process the sensor signal using a first process during the single-phase flow condition to generate a validated mass-flow measurement;
- and
- detect a two-phase flow condition and process the sensor signal using a second process during the two-phase flow condition to generate the validated mass-flow measurement.
A digital flowmeter comprising:
- a vibratable conduit;
- a driver connected to the conduit and operable to impart motion to the conduit;
- a sensor connected to the conduit and operable to sense the motion of the conduit and generate a sensor signal;
- and
- a controller connected to receive the sensor signal and detect a single-phase flow condition and a two-phase flow condition, the controller further comprising:
- a first processing module to analyze the sensor signal during the single-phase flow condition and to generate a first mass-flow measurement;
- a second processing module to analyze the sensor signal during the two-phase flow condition and to generate a second mass-flow measurement, the second processing module having a neural network processor to predict a mass-flow error and to calculate an error correction factor used to generate the second mass-flow measurement;
- and
- output circuitry to generate a drive signal to operate the driver.
A method of generating a measurement of a property of material flowing through a conduit, the method comprising:
- sensing motion of the conduit;
- generating a measurement of a property of material flowing through the conduit based on the sensed motion;
- detecting a flow condition based on the measurement of the property;
- if the flow condition is a single-phase flow condition, applying a first analysis process to the measurement of the property using digital signal processing to generate a first measurement signal;
- if the flow condition is a two-phase flow condition, applying a second analysis process to the measurement of the property using a neural network processor to:
- predict a mass-flow error based on the measurement of the property,
- generate an error correction factor,
- apply the error correction factor to the measurement of the property to generate a second measurement signal;
- generating a drive signal to impart motion in the conduit based on the measurement of the property;
- and
- imparting motion to the conduit using the drive signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.