Gas sensing system and method

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9442048-B2
Application number	US-201314044494-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 2, 2013
Priority date	Oct 2, 2013
Publication date	Sep 13, 2016
Grant date	Sep 13, 2016

Abstract

Systems and methods for sensing gas are disclosed. In one aspect, a system to monitor an output of a gas source comprises a chamber comprising a plurality of input ports to receive inputs from a plurality of gas sources, and means for repeatedly blocking one of the plurality of input ports for a period of time, detecting which one of the plurality of input ports is blocked, collecting data from a plurality of samples from the enclosure while the one of the plurality of input ports is blocked, and storing the data in a memory in association with an indicator of which one of the plurality of input ports is blocked. Other embodiments may be described.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A system to monitor outputs of a plurality of gas sources, the system comprising:
a chamber comprising a plurality of input ports respectively positioned on a plurality of sloped surfaces, wherein the input ports are configured to receive a flow of gas from a plurality of gas sources;
a ball that rolls over the plurality of sloped surfaces for repeatedly temporarily blocking one of the plurality of input ports;
means for repeatedly detecting which particular input port of the plurality of input ports is blocked;
means for repeatedly sampling data representative of the gas in the chamber; and
means for repeatedly storing the data from the sensor in a memory in association with an indicator of the particular input port.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the means for repeatedly detecting comprises a Hall effect position sensor.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the means for repeatedly sampling comprises a gas sensor.

4. The system of claim 1 , further comprising means to determine a characteristic of the gas in the chamber based on the data.

5. The system of claim 4 , wherein the means to determine comprises a processor-based device comprising logic, at least partially including hardware logic, to compute:

I
i

=

(

2
-
n

)

⁢

∑

i
=
1

n

⁢

⁢

H
i

n
-
1

where:
I i is a total output from an i th input port;
n is a total number of input ports; and
H i is average of measures taken while the i th input port is blocked.

6. A system to monitor outputs of a plurality of gas sources, the system comprising:
a chamber comprising a plurality of input ports positioned in respective discrete sections that are partially divided from each by a plurality of structures, wherein the input ports are configured to receive a flow of gas from a plurality of gas sources;
a ball that repeatedly rolls into one of the discrete sections for temporarily blocking one of the plurality of input ports;
means for repeatedly detecting which particular input port of the plurality of input ports is blocked;
means for repeatedly sampling data representative of the gas in the chamber; and
means for repeatedly storing the data from the sensor in a memory in association with an indicator of the particular input port.

7. An aircraft comprising:
a system to monitor outputs of a plurality of gas sources on the aircraft, the system comprising:
a chamber comprising a plurality of input ports respectively positioned on a plurality of sloped surfaces, wherein the input ports are configured to receive gas from the plurality of gas sources;
a ball that rolls over the plurality of sloped surfaces for repeatedly temporarily blocking one of the plurality of input ports;
means for repeatedly detecting which particular input port of the plurality of input ports is blocked;
means for repeatedly sampling data representative of the gas in the chamber; and
means for repeatedly storing the data from the sensor in a memory in association with an indicator of the particular input port.

8. The aircraft of claim 7 , wherein the means for repeatedly detecting comprises a Hall effect position sensor.

9. The aircraft of claim 7 , wherein the means for repeatedly sampling comprises a gas sensor to collect gas samples from the chamber.

10. The aircraft of claim 7 , further comprising means to determine a characteristic of the gas in the chamber based on the data.

11. The aircraft of claim 10 , wherein the means to determine comprises a processor-based device comprising logic, at least partially including hardware logic, to compute:

I
i

=

(

2
-
n

)

⁢

∑

i
=
1

n

⁢

⁢

H
i

n
-
1

where:
I i is a total output from an i th input port;
n is a total number of input ports; and
H i is average of measures taken while the i th input port is blocked.

12. An aircraft comprising:
a system to monitor outputs of a plurality of gas sources, the system comprising:
a chamber comprising a plurality of input ports positioned in respective discrete sections of the chamber, wherein the discrete sections are partially divided from each other by a plurality of structures, and wherein the input ports are configured to receive a flow of gas from the plurality of gas sources;
a ball that repeatedly rolls into one of the discrete sections for temporarily blocking one of the plurality of input ports;
means for repeatedly detecting which particular input port of the plurality of input ports is blocked;
means for repeatedly sampling data representative of the gas in the chamber; and
means for repeatedly storing the data from the sensor in a memory in association with an indicator of the particular input port.

13. A method to monitor outputs of a plurality of gas sources, the method comprising:
receiving inputs from the plurality of gas sources in a plurality of input ports in a chamber, wherein the chamber comprises a plurality of discrete sections that are partially divided from each other by a plurality of structures with the input ports respectively positioned in the plurality of discrete sections;
repeatedly temporarily blocking one of the plurality of input ports by moving a ball that rolls into one of the discrete sections;
repeatedly detecting which particular input port of the plurality of input ports is blocked;
repeatedly sampling, from a sensor, data representative of the gas in the chamber; and
repeatedly storing the data from the sensor in a memory in association with an indicator of the particular input port.

14. The method of claim 13 , further comprising determining a characteristic of the gas in the chamber based on the data.

Assignees

• Boeing Co

Inventors

• Durbin Richard R
• Glasnovich Jeffrey W

Classifications

• G01N1/26 Primary

  with provision for intake from several spaces · CPC title

• G01N1/2273

  Atmospheric sampling · CPC title

• G01N1/2247 Primary

  Sampling from a flowing stream of gas · CPC title

• G01N2001/002

  Devices for supplying or distributing samples to an analysing apparatus · CPC title

• G01N33/0022

  using a number of analysing channels · CPC title