Los Alamos National Security, LLC

University of California

Triad National Security, LLC

Chevron U.s.a. Inc.

Awe Technologies LLC

Fresenius Medical Care Holdings, Inc.

The United States of America As Represented by the United States

Fresenius Medical Care Deutschland Gmbh

U.S. Department of Energy

Adept Science & Technologies, LLC

Awb Technologies, LLC

Dipen N Sinha

Cristian Pantea

Gregory Kaduchak

Cung Khac Vu

Kurt Nihei

Denis P Schmitt

Christopher Hugh Skelt

Anirban Chaudhuri

Greg Goddard

John C Martin

Steven W Graves

Christopher Kwiatkowski

Gary Salzman

Curtis F Osterhoudt

Blake T Sturtevant

Peter G Espina

Martin Joseph Crnkovich

Alp Tugrul Findikoglu

Daniel Robert Chapman

Vamshi Krishna Chillara

Naveen N Sinha

Robert Schaefer

Fei Wang

Don Mayo Coates

Manuel Eduardo Gonzalez

M Clark Thompson

Roger G Johnston

Todd Andrew Jankowski

Gregory Russ Goddard

Bruce W Noel

Hari Selvi Viswanathan

Maruti Kumar Mudunuru

Bart Raeymaekers

Stephen F Agnew

Alan Lyman Graham

Alessandro Cattaneo

David C Lizon

Satish Karra

Jacobo R Archuletta

Kurt T Nihei

Darryl L Smith

William H Christensen

John F Brady

William O Wray

Brian W Anthony

John James Greenhall

Gareth T Schaefer

Scott Macintosh

James Schrodt

Steve M Bowman

Curtis Osterhoudt

Martin Urban

Chirstopher Skelt

Gregory Kaduchack

Steven Graves

This disclosure teaches a system and method for monitoring an extracorporeal blood circuit of a patient and identifying a needle dislodgement. The method includes identifying a potential needle dislodgement event based on changes in pressure of the extracorporeal blood circuit, searching for a heart rate of a patient by analyzing an optical backscatter signal from an optical sensor attached to the extracorporeal blood circuit or by analyzing a pressure signal representative of the pressure in the extracorporeal blood circuit, and verifying the potential needle dislodgement event is a needle dislodgement based on the absence of the heart rate.

Needle dislodgement detection systems and methods

A method of and system for producing a Bessel-like collimated sound beam frequencies below 1 MHz, and a device for sound (acoustic) imaging. A flat disk piezoelectric transducer having a large diameter/thickness ratio may be configured to exhibit radial vibration modes in the desired frequency range according to one or more parameters, including the diameter/thickness ratio, materials, electrode coverage, etc. The transducer may be driven by a waveform generator at one or more radial mode excitation frequencies.

Simple bessel-like collimated sound beam generator

In one aspect, a method and system for detecting a change in fluid dynamics of a fluid flowing through an extra-corporeal circuit is disclosed, which includes establishing an acoustic wave resonance across a transverse dimension of at least a portion of a line associated with the extra-corporeal circuit through which the fluid flows, monitoring a phase signal of the resonant acoustic wave, and identifying occurrence of a change in fluid dynamics of the flowing fluid when the observed phase signal of the resonant acoustic wave indicates a deviation from the expected fluid flow signature. The change in fluid dynamics can be used to indicate a venous needle dislodgement event.

System and method for detecting venous needle dislodgement

An acoustic apparatus and method for using a combination of low-frequency and high-frequency vibration of dried food, grain being an example, such that there are a large number of collisions among the individual grain particles for destroying microorganisms that reside on the surface or just below the surface of the grain, are described. Embodiments of the invention permit bulk and continuous processing of the food. It is expected that such collisions do not produce any chemical changes in the food, nor should it have any adverse effects on the taste thereof. Embodiments of the apparatus are applicable to destruction of airborne microorganisms.

Destruction of airborne pathogens, and microorganisms on grains and dried food using ultrasound

An apparatus and method utilizing acoustic resonance spectroscopy applicable to any mechanical device or structure having internal or external components that need to be positioned away from a set point and then returned to the original position, such as a valve which is opened to pass fluids and subsequently closed, for noninvasively providing a measure of the deviation from the original position, and for classifying or grouping together objects that appear to be identical from the outside, but which may have slight external or internal differences, such as sealed containers filled with different fluids or materials, are described.

Detection of structural variations in articles using acoustic resonance spectroscopy

Techniques are provided for detecting wafer defects. Example techniques include exciting a wafer using an acoustic signal to cause the wafer to exhibit vibrations, measuring one or more of linear frequency response metrics or nonlinear frequency responses metrics associated with the vibrations, and identifying any defects in the wafer based at least in part on one or more of the linear frequency response metrics or nonlinear frequency responses metrics. In embodiments, the wafer includes bismuth telluride (BiTe).

Acoustics-based noninvasive wafer defect detection

Apparatus and method for separating oil from water in produced oil without requiring large separation tanks in which the fluid is heated, using a simple, energy efficient separation process, are described. Centrifugal forces, by themselves, are not effective for completely separating a two-component fluid, especially when the densities of the fluids are similar, such as for heavy oil. By combining both primary and secondary acoustic forces, and taking advantage of centrifugal forces from fluid flow, such that acoustic radiation forces initiate the process of droplet accumulation, and contribute to droplet coalescence, centrifugal separation is enhanced.

Hybrid acoustic, centrifugal oil/water separation

Apparatus for performing multiple different measurements on a small specimen sample, enabling testing and diagnoses in real time at the point of care are described. The core of the apparatus includes an ultrasonic resonator cavity where acoustic resonances are used to determine the speed of sound and sound attenuation in a single droplet. Acoustic measurements are made in the reflection mode using electrical impedance of a small piezoelectric crystal transducer that operates in the thickness longitudinal mode. Combination of this technology with electromagnetic, electrical, and magnetic fields permits multiple types of measurements to be made using the same resonator cavity.

Multimodal characterization of a fluid using a single droplet

Described are an apparatus, computer program product, and associated methods for shaped waveform acoustic interrogation of substances and materials to determine one or more properties of the materials or substances. In some embodiments, a shaped waveform is formed by summing two or more different waveforms and an acoustic wave is generated according to the shaped waveform. The acoustic wave is transmitted by one or more transmitting transducers through the substance or material and received by one or more receiving transducers. The shaped waveform acoustic wave can have a duration or a period that is less than about 20 &#x3bc;s and can comprise predetermined frequency content. Characteristics of the shaped waveform acoustic wave, as received at the receiving transducer(s), including characteristics such as amplitude, frequency, time of flight, etc., can be associated with said one or more properties of the substance or material to provide for real-time monitoring of these properties.

Apparatus and method for shaped waveform interrogation

Methods for noninvasive determination of acoustical properties of flowing in pipes having a large ratio (&#x3e;10) of pipe diameter to wall thickness, and in highly attenuating fluids are described. When vibrations are excited on the outer surface of the wall of a pipe, the resulting vibrations propagate directly through the wall in a normal direction and through the pipe wall as guided waves, appearing on the opposite side of the pipe. This dual path propagation through pipes, where guided waves take the circumferential path in the wall of the pipe and may interfere with the time of-flight measurement obtained from the direct path through the fluid, is at least in part resolved by subtracting the signal from the guided wave from the combined signal, thereby permitting improved observation of the direct path propagation through the fluid.

Noninvasive acoustical property measurement of fluids

Apparatus includes a plurality of geological subsurface electrical line sensors spaced apart from each other proximate a predetermined geological subsurface region of interest, with at least one of the electrical line sensors situated as a line source to produce a multi-frequency electrical impedance tomography source signal, and with at least one of the electrical line sensors situated as a line detector to receive the multi-frequency electrical impedance tomography response signal associated with the source signal that propagates through the predetermined geological subsurface region of interest, and a controller including a processor and a memory configured with instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to determine an electrical mapping over the predetermined geological subsurface region of interest based on the multi-frequency electrical impedance tomography source signal, response signal, and the spatial positions of the geological subsurface electrical line sensors.

Multi-frequency electrical impedance tomography

Apparatus and methods for the measurement of gas volume fraction of produced oil are described. A first method measures the response of a pipe containing the produced oil excited by a source of vibration in the form of an acoustic frequency chirp containing a linearly varying range of frequencies in the tens of kilohertz range encompassing at least one resonant mode of the pipe. As the gas volume fraction increases, the location of the peak maximum of the measured frequency spectrum responsive to the excitation increases in frequency, and the height of the peak maximum increases, thereby permitting a linear calibration curve to be obtained. A second method measures the response of a pipe containing the produced oil to excitation by a continuous source of vibration having a chosen frequency above those which excite flexural vibrations in the pipe and simultaneously excite acoustic waves in the fluid contained in the pipe, known as the coincidence frequency. Gas present in the fluid will interrupt sound propagation or reverberation, thereby generating fluctuations in the amplitude of the measured vibrations of the pipe. The amplitude fluctuation level provides a measure of the gas volume present inside the pipe. A third method measures the response of a pipe containing the produced oil to excitation by a high-bandwidth, short pulse having a chosen center frequency above the coincidence frequency. Gas present in the fluid will interrupt pulse propagation, thereby generating fluctuations in the amplitude of the measured vibrations of the pipe.

Acoustic gas volume fraction measurement in a multiphase flowing liquid

Acoustic signal sources include acoustic resonators that include acoustic nonlinear materials. Acoustic signals at higher frequencies are mixed in the nonlinear materials to produce a lower frequency acoustic signal. Resonance provides increased efficiency in producing acoustic signals at difference frequencies corresponding to resonance frequencies. Higher frequency acoustic signals used in nonlinear mixing are preferably at frequencies corresponding to resonance frequencies as well.

Resonance-enhanced compact nonlinear acoustic source of low frequency collimated beam for imaging applications in highly attenuating media

Apparatus () and methods for making simultaneous measurements of composition (water-cut), fluid flow, and sound attenuation in a multiphase fluid flowing () through a pipe () in real-time, using the same apparatus () are described. Additionally, the apparatus () provides real-time pipe wall thickness monitoring for observing pipe corrosion or internal deposition. Knowledge of wall thickness is necessary to correct for water-cut (oil-water composition) automatically by adjusting the liquid path length internal to the pipe (spool). The use of short duration frequency chirp excitation signals () enables the apparatus to provide information that can be used to extract multiple levels of information from the same measurement in multiphase fluids including the presence of a significant quantity of gas (&#x2dc;60% gas volume fraction) in different flow regimes. Besides measuring steady flow, this device is useful for measurements during fast changing flows, such as for a rod-pumped well. Measurements up to about 1000 times a second can reliably be made.

Simultaneous real-time measurement of composition, flow, attenuation, density, and pipe-wallthickness in multiphase fluids

An apparatus and method for the separation of an oil-water mixture into its components are described. An acoustic radiation force moves oil droplets to the nodes of an acoustic standing wave generated in a vertical column containing the oil-water mixture. Once the droplets are sufficiently close together, attractive forces become dominant and the droplets may coalesce to form larger droplets, which have greater buoyancy, and separation of the mixture into a layer of oil and a layer of water occurs, not possible by simple gravitational separation. Acoustically-driven oil-water separation may be used for water-cut measurements in oil production wells, since separation of the oil from the water permits accurate sound speed measurements to be made for both the oil and the water, thereby allowing frequent in situ calibrations of the apparatus to determine whether sound speed measurements on the mixture are accurate in the event that one or both of the mixture constituents is changing.

Ultrasonic in-situ water-cut measurement using ultrasonic oil-water separation for affecting sound speed calibration

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Los Alamos, NM, United States of America

Dipen N Sinha