Flow meter for a fluid with a pulsating flow

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11815374-B2
Application number	US-202016787822-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 11, 2020
Priority date	Feb 12, 2019
Publication date	Nov 14, 2023
Grant date	Nov 14, 2023

Abstract

A flow meter for a fluid with a pulsating flow includes a piezo transducer for receiving and converting fluid pulses into electrical pulses, a AC/DC converter circuit for cumulatively storing the pulse energies of the electrical pulses in an energy store, a counter for counting the electrical pulses during a time interval, an evaluation device for determining a pulse parameter indicative of the flow rate of at least one of the electrical pulses and for determining a flow value based on the electrical pulses counted within the time interval and the determined pulse parameter, a communication device for the preferably wireless transmission of the determined flow value and a power supply device for the exclusive power supply of the flow meter with the energy stored in the energy store.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A flow meter for measuring a fluid having an induced pulsating flow, the flow meter being configured to connect to a fluid line through which said fluid having the induced pulsating flow moves, the flow meter comprising:
a piezo transducer which senses, in a first phase, a flow rate of the fluid having the induced pulsating flow and which generates power which is supplied to the flow meter, said piezo transducer receiving and converting fluid pulses into electrical pulses in the first phase, and said flow meter being exclusively supplied with power generated by the piezo transducer;
an AC/DC converter circuit which cumulatively stores pulse energies of individual pulses of the electrical pulses in an energy store in the first phase;
a counter which simultaneously counts the electrical pulses generated by the piezo transducer in the first phase during a time interval;
of the counted electrical pulses in a second phase, said evaluation device only being active and supplied with stored energy from the energy store in the second phase, and said pulse parameter being indicative of an amount of fluid flowing in a fluid line, and which calculates a flow value of the fluid in the second phase based on (i) the electrical pulses counted within the time interval and (ii) the determined pulse parameter indicative of a flow rate of at least one of the electrical pulses, the second phase occurring subsequent to the first phase;
a communication device which sends the determined flow value, said communication device only being active with the evaluation device and supplied with the stored energy from the energy store in the second phase; and
a power supply device which exclusively supplies power to the flow meter based on the pulse energies of the electrical pulses cumulatively stored in the energy store.

2. The flow meter as claimed in claim 1 , wherein in order to determine the flow-relevant pulse parameter the evaluation device detects an energy input of the at least one electrical pulse into the energy store as energy accumulated in the energy store within the time interval.

3. The flow meter as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the evaluation device detects at least one of (i) a duration, (ii) height and (iii) surface of the at least one electrical pulse as flow-relevant pulse parameters.

4. The flow meter as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising:
at least one sensor which detects a measured variable relevant to the flow of the fluid;
wherein the evaluation device is configured to correct the determined flow value based on the measured variable.

5. The flow meter as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the at least one sensor comprises at least one of (i) a temperature sensor and (ii) a pressure sensor.

6. The flow meter as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the counter is configured to activate the evaluation device when a predetermined counter reading is reached.

7. The flow meter as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the power supply device includes a measuring device which measures the energy contained in the energy store and which is configured to deactivate at least one of (i) the evaluation device and (ii) the communication device as long as the stored energy falls below a predetermined threshold value.

8. The flow meter as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the communication device is configured to wirelessly transmit the determined flow value.

9. The flow meter as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the piezo transducer is connected to a closing body of a pressure valve.

10. The flow meter as claimed in claim 9 , wherein the evaluation device is further configured to determine an opening amount of the closing body as a pulse parameter based on a duration of the at least one electrical pulse.

11. The flow meter as claimed in claim 10 , wherein the evaluation device is further configured to determine an opening stroke of the closing body as a further pulse parameter based on a height of the at least one electrical pulse and additionally to utilized said pulse parameter to determine the flow value.

Assignees

• Huck Ralf
• Kiefer Juergen
• Siemens Ag

Inventors

• Huck Ralf
• Kiefer Jürgen

Classifications

• G01F1/20 Primary

  by detection of dynamic effects of the flow · CPC title

• G01F15/022

  using electrical means · CPC title

• G01F1/72 Primary

  Devices for measuring pulsing fluid flows · CPC title

• F04B49/10

  Other safety measures · CPC title

• G01F1/666

  by detecting noise and sounds generated by the flowing fluid · CPC title