System for inspecting urea quality and method for the same

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016363473-A1
Application number	US-201514958504-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 3, 2015
Priority date	Jun 11, 2015
Publication date	Dec 15, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A system for inspecting urea quality includes a lower ultrasonic sensor, which is in contact with a urea liquid and installed at a bottom portion of a urea tank inside the urea tank, outputting an ultrasonic wave toward a top portion and receiving the ultrasonic wave reflected on a urea liquid surface; an upper ultrasonic sensor, which is in contact with the air and installed at the top portion of the urea tank inside the urea tank, outputting the ultrasonic wave toward the bottom portion and receiving the ultrasonic wave reflected on the liquid surface of the urea; and a controller, which is electrically connected with the upper ultrasonic sensor and the lower ultrasonic sensor, configured to calculate distances from each ultrasonic sensor to the urea liquid surface by the ultrasonic wave, and configured to determine whether the urea quality is abnormal from the calculated distances.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A system for inspecting urea quality comprising:
a lower ultrasonic sensor, which is in contact with a urea liquid and installed at a bottom portion of a urea tank inside the urea tank, outputting an ultrasonic wave toward a top portion of the urea tank and receiving the ultrasonic wave reflected on a urea liquid surface; an upper ultrasonic sensor, which is in contact with the air and installed at the top portion of the urea tank, outputting the ultrasonic wave toward the bottom portion of the urea tank and receiving the ultrasonic wave reflected on the urea liquid surface; and a controller, which is electrically connected with the upper ultrasonic sensor and the lower ultrasonic sensor, configured to calculate distances from each ultrasonic sensor to the urea liquid surface by the ultrasonic wave, which is outputted from both ultrasonic sensors and reflected on the liquid surface of the urea, and configured to determine whether the urea quality is abnormal using the calculated distances.

2 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the upper ultrasonic sensor is installed at the top portion inside the urea tank and the lower ultrasonic sensor is installed at the bottom portion inside the urea tank.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein one of the upper ultrasonic sensor and the lower ultrasonic sensor is used as a level sensor, and
wherein the controller configured to calculate a level of the urea liquid in the urea tank from the calculated distances.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the upper ultrasonic sensor outputs the ultrasonic wave vertically toward the bottom portion and the lower ultrasonic sensor outputs the ultrasonic wave vertically toward the top portion.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the controller determines that urea is normal when S 2 =H−S 1 or S 1 =H−S 2 is satisfied,
wherein S 1 , S 2 represent distances between the lower ultrasonic sensor and the urea liquid surface and the upper ultrasonic sensor and the urea liquid surface, respectively, and H represents a distance between the upper and lower ultrasonic sensors.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the controller determines that the quality of the urea is abnormal when S 2 ≠H−S 1 or S 1 ≠H−S 2 is satisfied based on the calculated distances.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the distances between the upper ultrasonic sensor and the urea liquid surface and the lower ultrasonic sensor and the urea liquid surface are calculated by S 1 =V 1 ×T 1 /2 and S 2 =V 2 ×T 2 /2,
wherein T 1 represents a time during which the ultrasonic wave transmitted by the lower ultrasonic sensor is reflected on the urea liquid surface and returns, T 2 represents a time during which the ultrasonic wave transmitted by the upper ultrasonic sensor is reflected on the urea liquid surface and returns, V 1 represents a velocity of the ultrasonic wave in a normal urea, V 2 represents a velocity of the ultrasonic wave in the air, and V 1 and V 2 are values input and stored in the controller in advance.

8 . A method for inspecting urea quality comprising:
outputting, by a lower ultrasonic sensor which is in contact with a urea liquid and installed at a bottom portion of a urea tank inside the urea tank, an ultrasonic wave toward a top portion of the urea tank and receiving the ultrasonic wave reflected on a urea liquid surface; outputting, by an upper ultrasonic sensor which is in contact with the air and installed at the top portion of the urea tank inside the urea tank, the ultrasonic wave toward the bottom portion and receiving the ultrasonic wave reflected on the urea liquid surface; and calculating a distance from each ultrasonic sensor to the urea liquid surface by the ultrasonic wave which is outputted from both ultrasonic sensors and reflected on the urea liquid surface, and determining whether the urea quality is abnormal from the calculated distance information.

9 . The method of claim 8 , wherein it is determined that the urea is normal when S 2 =H−S 1 or S 1 =H−S 2 is satisfied,
wherein S 1 , S 2 represent distances between the lower ultrasonic sensor and the urea liquid surface and the upper ultrasonic sensor and the urea liquid surface, respectively, and H represents a distance between the upper and lower ultrasonic sensors.

10 . The method of claim 8 , wherein it is determined that the urea quality is abnormal when S 2 ≠H−S 1 or S 1 ≠H−S 2 is satisfied based on the calculated distances.

11 . The method of claim 8 , wherein the distance between each ultrasonic sensor and the urea liquid surface is calculated by S 1 =V 1 ×T 1 /2 and S 2 =V 2 ×T 2 /2,
wherein T 1 represents a time during which the ultrasonic wave transmitted by the lower ultrasonic sensor is reflected on the urea liquid surface and returns, T 2 represents a time during which the ultrasonic wave transmitted by the upper ultrasonic sensor is reflected on the urea liquid surface and returns, V 1 represents a velocity of the ultrasonic wave in a normal urea, V 2 represents a velocity of the ultrasonic wave in the air, and V 1 and V 2 are values which are input and stored in the controller in advance.

Assignees

• Hyundai Motor Co Ltd
• Kia Motors Corp

Inventors

• Jung Jang Hyun

Classifications

• G01F23/2962 Primary

  Measuring transit time of reflected waves · CPC title

• G01F23/0061

  Physics · mapped topic

• G01N29/024 Primary

  by measuring propagation velocity or propagation time of acoustic waves · CPC title

• G01F23/80

  Arrangements for signal processing · CPC title

• F01N2900/1814

  Tank level · CPC title