Ultrasonic flowmeter with vibration-resistant operating mode

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022090949-A1
Application number	US-202017025877-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Sep 18, 2020
Priority date	Sep 18, 2020
Publication date	Mar 24, 2022
Grant date	—

Abstract

An ultrasonic flowmeter (USM) includes a meter body including a pipe section for flowing a fluid therethrough including a first and second ultrasonic transducer, top-works including a housing and a PCB, a controller coupled to the ultrasonic transducers through a transmitter and/or receiver, and an accelerometer and/or an acoustic sensor for sensing a vibration on the pipe section and for providing an output signal coupled to the controller. The electronics are communicatively coupled to the meter body and the housing is mechanically coupled to the meter body. The controller analyzes the output signal to identify ≥1 vibration frequency and compares the vibration frequency to a predetermined sensitive frequency range for the USM. When the vibration frequency is determined to be within the predetermined frequency range, the controller implements an anti-vibration operating mode by increasing a measurement time when measuring the fluid flow and/or adding additional data processing task(s).

First claim

1 . A method, comprising:
providing an ultrasonic flowmeter (USM) including a meter body comprising a pipe section configured to flow a fluid including at least a first and a second ultrasonic transducer, and top-works including a housing and a printed circuit board (PCB) comprising electronics including a controller having associated memory coupled to the ultrasonic transducers through at least one of a transmitter and a receiver, and at least one of an accelerometer and an acoustic sensor for sensing a vibration on the pipe section for providing an output signal coupled to an input of the controller, the electronics communicatively coupled to the meter body, and the housing is mechanically coupled to the meter body by a mechanical joint; the controller:
analyzing the output signal to identify at least one vibration frequency;
comparing the vibration frequency to a predetermined sensitive frequency range for the USM, and
when the vibration frequency is determined to be within the predetermined sensitive frequency range, implementing an anti-vibration operating mode comprising at least one of increasing a measurement time when measuring the flow of the fluid and adding additional data processing task(s).

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the USM includes both the accelerometer and the acoustic sensor.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the comparing comprises fast Fourier transform (FFT) processing.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the method includes the additional data processing task(s), and wherein the additional data processing task(s) comprises fast Fourier transform (FFT) processing followed by deconvolution.

5 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined sensitive frequency range is determined by at least one resonant frequency of the ultrasonic transducers which is determined by at least one of a maximum phase and a minimum impedance.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the predetermined sensitive frequency range is 80 kHz to 300 kHz.

7 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the fluid comprises a hydrocarbon gas or hydrogen.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising a gas pressure regulator along another pipe section that is proximate to the pipe section.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the accelerometer is coupled to the controller by a serial interface selected from Inter-Integrated Circuit (I 2 C), serial peripheral interface (SPI), and Universal Asynchronous Receiver/Transmitter (UART).

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the anti-vibration operating mode is implemented by program code associated with a vibration reducing algorithm that is stored in the memory.

11 . An ultrasonic flowmeter (USM), comprising:
a meter body comprising a pipe section for flowing a fluid including at least a first and a second ultrasonic transducer, top-works including a housing and a printed circuit board (PCB) comprising electronics including a controller having associated memory coupled to the ultrasonic transducers through at least one of a transmitter and a receiver, and at least one of an accelerometer and an acoustic sensor for sensing a vibration on the pipe section and for providing an output signal coupled to an input of the controller, the electronics communicatively coupled to the meter body, and the housing is mechanically coupled to the meter body by a mechanical joint; the controller configured for:
analyzing the output signal to identify at least one vibration frequency;
comparing the vibration frequency to a predetermined sensitive frequency range for the USM, and
when the vibration frequency is determined to be within the predetermined frequency range, implementing an anti-vibration operating mode comprising at least one of increasing a measurement time when measuring the flow of the fluid and adding additional data processing task(s).

12 . The USM of claim 11 , wherein the USM includes both the accelerometer and the acoustic sensor.

13 . The USM of claim 11 , wherein the comparing comprises fast Fourier transform (FFT) processing.

14 . The USM of claim 11 , wherein the additional data processing task(s) is implemented, and wherein the additional data processing task(s) comprises fast Fourier transform (FFT) processing followed by deconvolution.

15 . The USM of claim 11 , wherein the predetermined sensitive frequency range is determined by at least one resonant frequency of the ultrasonic transducers which is determined by using at least one of a maximum phase and a minimum impedance.

16 . The USM of claim 11 , wherein the predetermined sensitive frequency range is 80 kHz to 300 kHz.

17 . The USM of claim 11 , wherein the fluid comprises a hydrocarbon gas or hydrogen.

18 . The USM of claim 11 , wherein the anti-vibration operating mode is implemented by program code associated with a vibration reducing algorithm that is stored in the memory.

Assignees

• Honeywell Int Inc

Inventors

• Chen Longfei
• Sai Bin
• Chen Meifa

Classifications

• G01F1/662 Primary

  Constructional details · CPC title

• G01H11/08

  using piezoelectric devices · CPC title

• G01F15/002

  for gases · CPC title

• G01F1/667

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

• G01H13/00

  Measuring resonant frequency · CPC title