Oscillating tube mass flow rate meter
US4444059A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 13, 1982 |
| Grant date | Apr 24, 1984 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 13, 2002 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01F1/78
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
A flow meter apparatus for measuring the mass flow rates of fluids passed through a cantilever mounted oscillating sensing tube where the capability of the meter to measure low mass flow rates is enhanced by using a sensing tube which has a low torsional spring constant about its longitudinal axis. Mounted parallel to this sensing tube, also in a cantilever fashion, is a second tube which has essentially identical moments of inertia and spring constants. Connecting the two tubes at their free ends is a lightweight rigid structure. The two tubes with the connecting structure can be sinusoidally driven so that when a fluid is passed through the sensing tube generated Coriolis forces torsionally deflect the connecting structure about an axis located midway between the tubes. Such torsional deflection is a function of the mass flow rate of the fluid passing through the sensing tube, and this mass flow rate can be measured by determining the time required for the second of the two tubes to pass through the mid-plane of oscillation after the first tube has passed through that plane.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.