The Babcock & Wilcox Company

Elsag International B.v.

William L Thompson

Marion A Keyes, Iv

Edward L Sterling, Jr

Michael S Willey

Walter L Ghering

David W Jordan

Jack W Malcolm

A method and device for measuring energy in fuel gas comprises a solid electrolyte oxygen pump for generating an amount of oxygen in response to current being supplied to the pump. A sample of the gas is mixed with the oxygen from the pump to produce a mixture which is subjected to complete combustion in a catalytic combustor. An oxygen sensor is connected to the catalytic combustor for measuring excess oxygen in the exhaust gas from the combustor. A signal from the oxygen signal is compared to a known and desired amount of excess oxygen in the exhaust gas. If there is too much or too little oxygen inthe exhaust gas, a feedback signal is used to adjust the amount of current being supplied to the oxygen pump until the actual amount of excess oxygen is equal to the selected amount of excess oxygen. The selected amount of excess oxygen is indicative of complete combustion of the sample mixture. With the excess oxygen equaling the desired oxygen in the exhaust gas, the amount of current being supplied to the pump is used to calculate the energy in the fuel sample.

Online energy flow measuring device and method for natural gas

An on-line system that measures the strength of material within a web without contacting same is disclosed. Two laser sources having beams which impinge upon the web of material are positioned so that their respective beams are spaced a predetermined distance apart. The first laser source induces a radially propagating ultrasonic wave within the material. The ultrasonic wave causes the beam from the second laser source to be reflected and intercepted by a light sensor permitting the velocity of the wave and the strength of the material to be determined.

Non-contacting on-line paper strength measuring system

A digital controlling system for fiber optic vortex shedding flowmeters which provides a new and improved preamp circuit and a computer for correcting temperature, linearity and hysteresis effects. The controlling system overcomes the inherent non-linearity of the vortex shedding phenomena and also provides two-way communication between a central control unit and the fiber optic vortex shedding flowmeter. The improved preamp circuitry increases the low-end range of fiber optic vortex shedding flowmeters.

Digital electronics for controlling a fiber optic shedding flowmeter

A technique for producing a three-dimensional holographic display which is updatable in real time is disclosed. A spinning lens device intercepts a two-dimensional display on a projection television receiver and transforms same into a three-dimensional holographic display in free space. The holographic display is modifiable by the control room operator and process control variables can be readily superimposed thereon.

Holographic operator display for control systems

An on-line serial communication interface is established from the transmitter of a two line current loop transmitter to a digital circuit such as a computer or hand-held terminal which receives and processes digital voltage pulses. The interface includes a comparator having a positive terminal connected by a capacitor to one of the current lines, and a negative terminal connected to a source of small positive voltage. The output of the comparator is connected to an input port of the digital device. The transmitter modulates the current on the current loop by a small amount with respect to the analog current communicated by the transmitter. This generates voltage pulses in the capacitor which are compared to the selected voltage and are amplified to form large pulses used for communication with the computer or hand-held terminal.

On-line serial communication interface from a current loop to a computer

A serial communication interface establishes communication to the microprocessor of a transmitter, from a current loop which is powered by a power supply. The microprocessor outputs an analog signal corresponding to a process variable and also can receive a serial communication voltage pulse signal. The analog signal is applied to a current regulating circuit which draws current from the power supply onto the current loop in an amount which is proportional to the process variable. A comparator in the form of an operational amplifier has an output connected to the microprocessor for applying the serial communication voltage pulse signal to the microprocessor. The comparator has one input which is held at a slight negative voltage and another input which is connected to a line of the current loop connected to the negative terminal of the power supply. To establish communication from the current loop to the microprocessor, voltage on the current loop is modulated by a small amount to generate small voltage pulses which are applied to a positive input of the comparator. The comparator amplifies the small voltage pulses into larger voltage pulses which are then applied to the input of the microprocessor to establish digital communication with the microprocessor. In this way the analog signal on the current loop can be maintained simultaneously with digital communication between the loop and the microprocessor.

On-line serial communication interface to a transmitter from a current

An on-line serial communication interface is established from a digital circuit such as a computer or hand held terminal, to a current loop which has lines for connecting a transmitter to a power supply. The interface includes a diode which is connected in series with one of the lines of the current loop. The diode is connected in parallel to the source and drain of a FET. The control gate of the FET is connected to the output of a differential amplifier who receives as one of its inputs, a digital voltage pulse signal from the digital circuit. The other input of the amplifier is held at a selected voltage so that voltage pulses are output from the amplifier when the digital circuit generates its voltage pulses. This turns the FET on and off in synchronism with the voltage pulses, thus cutting the diode in and out of series with the line of the current loop. With the FET in its non-conducting off condition, the diode has a small voltage drop thereacross. This does not effect the current on the current loop. With the FET conducting and in its on state, the diode is cut out and its voltage drop is applied to the transmitter which is connected to the current loop. Communication can thus be established with the transmitter while again avoiding any interruption in the current on the current loop.

On-line serial communication interface from a computer to a current loop

A fiber optic readout from an optic fiber which receives light from a driven LED and conveys it to a light detector, is processed by a preamp and sample and hold arrangement to produce an output of 4-20 mA. This output is applied to a conventional two-wire 4-20 mA line. Power is conserved by using a preamp in a variable pulse rate mode of operation.

Variable pulse rate led electronics for a fiber optic vortex shedding

An optical sensor arrangement comprises a light-emitting diode which is connected to a light detector over a light connection such as a fiber optics fiber. The fiber may be provided in the vicinity of a vortex shedding flow meter and is bent by the passage of vortices past the fiber. Bending the fiber causes attenuation of the light signal from the light-emitting diode to the light detector. The light-emitting diode is powered by a pulse generator which supplies the diode with low duty cycle high-current pulses. The resulting detected pulses are amplified, sampled and held to obtain peak values for each pulse. The detected pulse is suppressed by a feedback circuit portion which is activated only after each low duty cycle high current pulse. The detected peaks are utilized to generate a square wave which is used as a measurement of the variable, in particular the passage of vortices in a vortex shedding flow meter.

Electronics for fiber optic vortex shedding flow meter

A sensor circuit method of operating a vortex shedding flow meter utilizes A.C. single cycle bursts to intermittently drive a sensor which changes its state with the vortex shedding frequency. The bursts are spaced in time by an amount larger than the burst duration.

Bridge excitation for sensor used on a vortex shedding flow meter

An apparatus for measuring the relative flow of pulverized coal in a plurality of pipes connected between a common pulverizer and respective burners comprises a plurality of electric charge sensors each disposed in a similar position on the plurality of pipes. The electric sensors sense an induced signal produced by charged pulverized coal particles. For unbiased flow, the induced signal is proportional to the amount of flow in each pipe as the charge properties of the particles from the pulverizer are the same for all the pipes. A circuit is connected to the sensors for obtaining a root means square value of the induced signal which in turn is compared to each induced signal respectively to obtain a measurement of the relative flow in each pipe. The induced signal can be integrated twice to improve the correlation between flow and charge amount since the integrated value is independent of radial position for the charges in the pipes.

Pulverized coal relative distribution meter

A function generator producing an output signal varying in predetermined non-linear relationship to an input signal wherein the input signal addresses a programmable read-only memory (PROM) which is programmed to produce readout signals linearly proportional to selected values of the input signal and readout signals corresponding to the predetermined non-linear function of the input signal at said selected values and the output signal is derived by interpolation between the consecutive selected input signals which bracket the input signal.

Function generator

A device and method is disclosed which determines the presence and absence of a burner flame by injecting a pressure modulated signal into the burner which modulates a flame at a selected frequency. Light emitted from the flame is modulated at the same frequency. An optical sensor is provided for sensing the light amplitude modulation frequency and connected to a correlator circuit for correlating the light amplitude modulation signal with the pressure modulation signal. If the signals correlate, a flame is assumed to be present and a flame on signal generated. The pressure modulation signal can be discontinued periodically. If a corresponding discontinuation of the light amplitude modulation signal is sensed this is indicative of the continued presence of the flame whereas a continuation of the light amplitude modulation signal indicates a flame out condition.

Correlation type flicker flamon

A dedicated correlator receives two noise signals from spaced centers sensing noise in a fluid flow. One of the noise signals in delayed by a variable known amount with respect to the other. The amount of correlation between the delayed and undelayed signal is determined. A sweep voltage generator is connected for variably increasing or decreasing the delay at set rates. A peak lock control is connected to the sweep generator and to the apparatus for establishing correlation for changing the direction of the sweep generator when it is determined that the amount of correlation is decreasing from a maximum. The particular delay amount corresponding to maximum correlation corresponds, in turn, to the amount of time required for the fluid to traverse the two sensors and, thus, the velocity of the fluid. The particular delay amount varies with variations in fluid velocity since the peak lock control follows these variations and controls the sweep voltage generator accordingly.

Dedicated correlator

Circuitry for extracting the square root of an incoming voltage signal is disclosed. The circuit (10) utilizes a four-bit up/down counter (14) to control the output duty cycle of a pair of four-bit rate multipliers (16, 18) connected in a cascaded configuration. The output of the second rate multiplier (18), which is related to the square of the up/down counter value, is used to control the mode of the counter (14) so as to track the incoming voltage signal. Inasmuch as the square of the up/down counter value is tracking the incoming voltage signal, the output duty cycle of the first rate multiplier (16) in the cascaded pair is the square root of the incoming voltage signal which is subsequently converted into analog form. The circuit also utilizes a 'dithering' technique so that the resulting square root output signal has greater than four-bit accuracy.

Growing community of inventors

Montville, OH, United States of America

William L Thompson