The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Dec. 18, 1984
Filed:
Aug. 06, 1982
Robert Bosch GmbH, Stuttgart, DE;
Abstract
The mass flow rate of a fluid, for example a gas or air, for example passing through a duct or the like, is determined by placing a vibrating element in the path or stream of air flow, and measuring the damping thereof due to the air flow; the damping can easily be measured, in accordance with the invention, by connecting the vibrating element in a circuit having a servo system including a controlled variable amplifier and a comparator, such as a proportional-integral (PI) controller (14) comparing the signal on the vibrating element with a reference establishing a vibrating amplitude and, in turn, controlling the amplification of the variable amplification amplifier (8) to maintain a constant amplitude of vibration, the control signal controlling the variable amplification amplifier being a measure of the damping, and hence of mass flow rate. To eliminate damping due to extraneous conditions, such as clamping of the mechanical vibrating elements, connection of electrodes and the like, an alternating current (10a) can be fed to the vibrating element, the alternating current having a frequency which is high with respect to the vibration frequency, and then being filtered out by a band-pass filter (17) tuned to the alternating current frequency, the level of the signal across the vibrating element being subtracted from the overall damping signal to thereby eliminate errors due to inherent damping of the mechanical system independent of fluid flow.