Rotor system for measuring the flow rate of a fluid comprising a liquid, and associated equipment

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12281920-B2
Application number	US-202118005289-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 13, 2021
Priority date	Jul 17, 2020
Publication date	Apr 22, 2025
Grant date	Apr 22, 2025

Abstract

A system for measuring a flow rate of a fluid containing liquid includes a body in which the fluid flows, at least one rotor configured to be rotated by the fluid, and a device for measuring a rotation speed of the rotor. The measuring device includes an optical module configured to transmit an incident light radiation on vanes of the rotor, in a direction substantially perpendicular to an axis of rotation of the rotor and receive a reflected light radiation coming from the vanes. The measuring device further includes a conversion module configured to determine the rotation speed of the rotor according to the reflected light radiation and determine the flow rate of the fluid.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A system for measuring a flow rate of a fluid comprising liquid, comprising:
a body comprising at least one inlet, at least one outlet, and at least one passage for a flow of the fluid from the inlet to the outlet;
at least one rotor disposed inside the at least one passage and configured to be rotated, by the flow of the fluid, about an axis substantially parallel to a main direction according to which the fluid is intended to flow into the passage; and
a device for measuring a rotation speed of the rotor, the measuring device comprising
a module for emitting an incident light radiation,
an optical module configured to
transmit the incident light radiation from the emission module on vanes of the rotor, and
receive a reflected light radiation, the reflected light radiation coming from a reflection, on the vanes of the rotor, of the incident light radiation, and

a conversion module configured to
determine the rotation speed of the rotor according to the reflected light radiation, and

determine the flow rate of the fluid according to the rotation speed of the rotor, wherein the optical module is configured such that the incident light radiation is incident on the vanes of the rotor in a direction substantially perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the rotor,
the measuring device further comprises a module for connecting the optical module to the body, the connection module being configured to establish a fluid seal junction between the optical module and the passage, and
the rotor comprises a plurality of vanes, at least one vane of the plurality of vanes having a reflection coefficient of a light radiation different from a reflection coefficient of the light radiation of at least one other vane of the plurality of vanes.

2. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the optical module comprises a portion for transmitting the disposed incident light radiation in the direction substantially perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the rotor, at a distance less than 1 cm from an outer diameter of the rotor.

3. The system according to claim 2 , wherein the distance is less than 5 mm from the outer diameter of the rotor.

4. The system according to claim 3 , wherein the distance is less than 2 mm from the outer diameter of the rotor.

5. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the optical module comprises an optical fibre.

6. The system according to claim 5 , wherein the optical module comprises a proximity detection optical fibre.

7. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the optical module is configured to transmit the reflected light radiation to the conversion module.

8. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the body has an outer wall configured to be in contact with the flowing fluid.

9. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one vane is made of a material having a reflection coefficient of the light radiation less than a reflection coefficient of the light radiation of a material constituting the at least one other vane.

10. The system according to claim 9 , wherein the rotor comprises at least four vanes, at least two vanes of the at least four vanes being made of plastic material and at least two other vanes of the at least four vanes being made of metal.

11. The system according to claim 1 , wherein
the emission module comprises a laser source, and
the conversion module comprises a laser interferometer.

12. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the optical module comprises an optical fibre comprising a Bragg grating.

13. The system according to claim 1 , wherein the emission module is configured to emit the incident light radiation having a wavelength of between 600 and 2000 nm.

14. The system according to claim 1 , comprising at least one of:
at least one pressure sensor configured to measure a parameter relating to a pressure of the fluid flowing in the body, and
at least one temperature sensor, configured to measure a parameter relating to a temperature of the fluid flowing in the body.

15. An equipment comprising a chamber configured to contain a fluid comprising flowing liquid, and the system for measuring a flow rate of the fluid comprising liquid according to claim 1 , the chamber being delimited by a wall distinct from the body of the measuring system.

16. The equipment according to claim 15 , wherein the chamber is configured to contain the fluid comprising liquid at a pressure less than 200 bar, at a temperature less than 350° C. and flowing at a flow rate of between 1 and 1000 m 3 /h.

17. The equipment according to claim 16 , wherein the chamber is configured to contain the fluid comprising liquid at the pressure less than 10 bar and at the temperature less than 120° C.

Assignees

• Commissariat Energie Atomique

Inventors

• Latil Philippe

Classifications

• G01F15/02

  Compensating or correcting for variations in pressure, density or temperature · CPC title

• G01K11/3206

  at discrete locations in the fibre, e.g. using Bragg scattering · CPC title

• G01L11/025

  using a pressure-sensitive optical fibre · CPC title

• G01F15/0755

  involving digital counting · CPC title

• G01F5/00

  Measuring a proportion of the volume flow · CPC title