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US 8,281,655 B2Granted
Fuel gauging system utilizing a digital fuel gauging probe
AssigneeEaton Corporation
InventorsPhillip Andrew Bahorich, Victor Eisa, Michael Anthony Hessling, Nalin Joshi
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A fluid measurement system utilizes one or more digital probes that communicate over a digital bus to a fluid gauging computer. The digital probes incorporate a capacitance to digital circuit that converts probe capacitance to a digital value. The digital value is communicated to the fuel gauging computer via a data bus.
Claims19
A fuel gauging system for use on an aircraft having a fuel tank, the system comprising:
- a fuel computer unit;
- and
- one or more fuel probes configured to be mounted in the fuel tank, each fuel probe having a body disposed inside the fuel tank and at least partially submerged in fuel, a submerged fuel probe forming a capacitor with fuel as the dielectric, each fuel probe having a capacitance-to-digital (CDC) circuit disposed on the body, such that the CDC is disposed inside the fuel tank,
- wherein the CDC is disposed on the body of the fuel probe for measuring the capacitance of the capacitor, converting the measured capacitance to a digital representation of the measured capacitance, encoding the digital representation of the measured capacitance into a digital signal, and communicating the digital signal to the fuel computer unit for the fuel computer unit to calculate a quantity of fuel in the fuel tank based, at least in part, on the measured capacitance.
1 more element
An apparatus for use in a tank containing a liquid, the apparatus comprising:
- a probe configured to be mounted in the tank for at least partial immersion in the liquid, the probe comprising concentric tubes, each concentric tube being disposed inside the fuel tank;
- and
- a capacitance-to-digital (CDC) circuit disposed on the probe in the tank, such that the CDC is disposed inside the fuel tank and is operably connected to the concentric tubes for directly measuring capacitance and converting the measured capacitance to a digital signal output.
A fluid measurement system comprising:
- a set of addressable capacitive sensing probes configured to be mounted in a fluid tank at locations for immersion in a fluid;
- a set of circuits, each circuit being disposed on one of the set of addressable capacitive sensing probes, each circuit being configured for determining a value corresponding to a capacitance of the capacitive sensing probe and for converting the value to a digital signal, where the capacitance varies depending on a fluid level within the fluid tank;
- a path of electrical communication to each of the set of addressable capacitive sensing probes;
- and
- a computer that selectively addresses over the path of electrical communication a determined first one of the addressable capacitive sensing probes and obtains a first digital signal therefrom, the computer determining a dielectric constant of the fluid based on the first digital signal, where the computer selectively addresses over the path of electrical communication others of the set of addressable capacitive sensing probes and obtains corresponding digital signals therefrom, where the computer determines a fluid measurement based on data including the determined dielectric constant of the fluid and the corresponding digital signals from others of the set of addressable capacitive sensing probes.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.