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US 9,476,740 B2Granted
Reverse flow detection and annunciation
AssigneeMueller International, LLC
InventorsSzabolcs Zigovszki, Thomas Cullinan
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Technologies are described herein for detecting a reverse flow condition in a meter and providing an associated alert. An amount of reverse flow in the meter is accumulated over a time period. If the accumulated amount of reverse flow over the time period exceeds a threshold value, a reverse flow alert is provided.
Claims17
A method for detecting a reverse flow condition in a meter, the method comprising the steps of:
- accumulating, by a microcontroller in the meter, an amount of reverse flow in the meter over a time period;
- determining, by the microcontroller, whether the accumulated amount of reverse flow over the time period exceeds a threshold value;
- and
- upon determining that the accumulated amount of reverse flow over the time period exceeds the threshold value, providing, by the microcontroller, a reverse flow alert,
- wherein accumulating the amount of reverse flow in the meter over the time period comprises periodically determining a reverse pulse count indicating a number of reverse flow pulses that occurred since a last measurement and adding an amount of flow represented by the reverse pulse count to a backflow accumulator in the microcontroller.
2 more elements
A computer-readable storage medium having processor-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processing unit, cause the processing unit to:
- accumulate an amount of reverse flow through a meter over a time period;
- determine whether the accumulated amount of reverse flow over the time period exceeds a first threshold value;
- upon determining that the accumulated amount of reverse flow over the time period exceeds the first threshold value, providing a first reverse flow alert indicating a reverse flow condition;
- determine whether the accumulated amount of reverse flow over the time period exceeds a second threshold value;
- and
- upon determining that the accumulated amount of reverse flow over the time period exceeds the second threshold value, providing a second reverse flow alert.
3 more elements
A system comprising:
- a measuring chamber of a meter assembly, the measuring chamber containing a measuring device;
- and
- a solid-state register implemented in the meter assembly, the solid-state register magnetically coupled to the measuring device and comprising a microcontroller, the microcontroller configured to
- accumulate an amount of reverse flow through the measuring chamber over a time period,
- determine whether the accumulated amount of reverse flow over the time period exceeds a threshold value, and
- upon determining that the accumulated amount of reverse flow over the time period exceeds the threshold value, providing a reverse flow alert indicating a reverse flow condition,
- wherein accumulating the amount of reverse flow in the meter over the time period comprises periodically determining a reverse pulse count indicating a number of reverse flow pulses that occurred since a last measurement and adding an amount of flow represented by the reverse pulse count to a backflow accumulator in the microcontroller.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.