Ultrasonic measurement device and a method for operating the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10031010-B2
Application number	US-201114241686-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 30, 2011
Priority date	Aug 30, 2011
Publication date	Jul 24, 2018
Grant date	Jul 24, 2018

Abstract

A method for operating an ultrasonic device comprising a first and second ultrasonic transducers, includes driving the first and second transducers at a driving frequency such that the first and second transducers generate a first and a second signals, respectively. The method also includes sensing the second signal at the first transducer to produce a first measurement signal and sensing the first signal at the second transducer to produce a second measurement signal. The method further includes identifying a first set of data-points in the first measurement signal and a second set of data-points in the second measurement signal. The method also includes generating a frequency data-series using the first set of data-points and a corresponding data-point in the second set of data-points. The method also includes performing statistical operations based on the frequency data-series and configuring an operating frequency for driving the first and second transducers using the operations.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for performing diagnostics via an ultrasonic measurement device operating under non-reciprocal conditions and including a first ultrasonic transducer and a second ultrasonic transducer operating in a clamp-on configuration, the method comprising steps of:
(a) driving the first ultrasonic transducer and the second ultrasonic transducer at an operating frequency such that the first ultrasonic transducer and the second ultrasonic transducer each generate a first ultrasonic signal and a second ultrasonic signal along with a plurality of acoustic reflections generated by the first ultrasonic transducer and the second ultrasonic transducer operating in the clamp-on configuration, respectively;
(b) sensing the second ultrasonic signal at the first ultrasonic transducer operating in the clamp-on configuration to produce a first measurement signal and sensing the first ultrasonic signal at the second ultrasonic transducer operating in the clamp-on configuration to produce a second measurement signal;
(c) identifying a first set of data points in the first measurement signal produced by the first ultrasonic transducer operating in the clamp-on configuration and a second set of data points in the second measurement signal produced by the second ultrasonic transducer operating in the clamp-on configuration, wherein each data point in the first set of data points uniquely corresponds to a data point in the second set of data points;
(d) generating a frequency data series by successively determining a time difference between time instants corresponding to each data point in the first set of data points and a corresponding data point in the second set of data points;
(e) performing one or more statistical operations based on the frequency data series; and
(f) generating a first diagnostic event based on at least one statistical operation based on the frequency data series.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein steps (a) through (e) are performed for at least one driving frequency in a set of driving frequencies suitable for driving the first ultrasonic transducer and the second ultrasonic transducer such that the driving frequency is not same as the operating frequency, and wherein the first diagnostic event is generated based on (1) at least one statistical operation corresponding to the at least one driving frequency and (2) at least one statistical operation corresponding to the operating frequency.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
(g) selecting a sub-set of contiguous data points from the first set of data points and a corresponding sub-set of contiguous data points from the second set of data points;
(h) generating a range data series by successively determining a time difference between time instants corresponding to each data point in the sub-set of the first set of data points and a corresponding data point in the sub-set of the second set of data points;
(i) performing one or more statistical operations based on the range data series; and
(j) generating a second diagnostic event based on at least one statistical operation based on the range data series.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the one or more statistical operations comprise at least one of determining variance, determining standard-deviation, regression analysis, and curve-fitting.

Assignees

• Christensen Torben Amby
• Schaefer Robert
• Siemens Ag

Inventors

• Christensen Torben Amby
• Schaefer Robert

Classifications

• G01F1/662 Primary

  Constructional details · CPC title

• G01F1/667 Primary

  Arrangements of transducers for ultrasonic flowmeters; Circuits for operating ultrasonic flowmeters · CPC title

• G01F25/0007

  Physics · mapped topic

• G01F25/10

  of flowmeters · CPC title