Horiba Instruments, Inc.

Panametrics, Inc.

James A Hill

John P Pell

An acoustic transducer includes an acoustic pulse generator, an impedance matching layer, and a thermal management system. The thermal management system is mounted to the matching layer to transfer heat from the matching layer, and is formed of a high thermal conductivity material relative to the matching layer. The thermal management system is arranged along the matching layer such that substantial heat is transferred to the environment from the thermal management system without excessive temperature increase at the pulse generator.

Acoustic transducer

An acoustic transducer for measuring a property of a fluid includes an acoustic pulse generator and buffer assembly. The buffer assembly is between the pulse generator and the fluid. The buffer assembly is composed of a core and a sleeve shrink fitted over the core to form a cladding layer. The cladding layer reduces dispersion of the acoustic pulses traveling through the core.

A flow conditioner includes a body composed of an array of vanes generally parallel to the direction of fluid flow. The vanes create a plurality of chambers to effectively reduce large scale vortices in the flow. The vanes have surfaces with perforations to allow pressure regulation between chambers to effectively reduce asymmetric flow and reduce drag. Additional preferred features include an acoustic choke created by a reduction in cross-sectional flow area at the entrance and the exit of the flow conditioner with circular plates. The plates have rough edges to increase production of micro-vortices.

Flow conditioner

A flow conditioning plate for interposition in a flow line has a pattern of apertures which introduces a flow irregularity characteristic of a commonly encountered irregular flow in a plant, such as the disturbance introduced by one or more junctions or fittings in the upstream flow path. The apertures may introduce a specific flow distribution, asymmetry of flow profile or swirl component, and these may be tuned to simulate a plant condition that occurs downstream of one or more bends, elbows or T junctions. The disturbance persists, or evolves in a known way for a well defined distance along the flow path to simulate field flow conditions, and a flow meter is tested or calibrated in the disturbed segment, preferably at a defined position, under known flow to produce a calibration table. The meter may then be later installed to measure the irregular flow in an unconditioned flow line at a plant. This allows a meter factor or multiple weighting algorithm to be quickly ascertained and programmed to adapt a meter to an intended plant having known configuration involving complex or disturbed flow paths and irregular flow conditions, and the method of calibration extends the use of clamp-on metering systems to process measurement needs at many accessible conduits and segments in existing plants that carry unsettled or disturbed flows.

Disturbance simulating flow plate

A signal transducer mounts to a straight tube to measure the flow velocity of fluid flowing therein. The transducer operates at a frequency above cut-off allowing multiple modes to exist, and is mounted with a wedge of material having a sound speed less than the sound speed of the fluid, coupled to the conduit, and angled to launch a signal into the fluid at an acceptance angle that sends the lowest order mode acoustic signal axially through the fluid. Extraneous modes present at generally lesser magnitude convert to the desired mode, resulting in propagation of a coherent burst that is readily detected by a receiving transducer located further along the conduit. The wedge may be formed of hard plastic such as an acrylic, PVC or PEI having a shear wave velocity less than 1400 meters per second, and the launch geometry results in the attenuation, mode conversion or cancellation of higher mode signal energy components. The principal signal is strong and well defined, arriving in a window before any interfering signals. Upstream and downstream signals are thresholded, and processed to provide a flow measurement of high accuracy.

Growing community of inventors

Haverhill, MA, United States of America

James A Hill