Thickness measurement of in-ground culverts

US5929338A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army · US

Inventors

• Julius Frankel · Rensselaer, US
• Agostino Abbate · Clifton Park, US
• Stephan Schroeder · Munich, DE

Key dates

• Filing date: Apr 17, 1998
• Grant date: Jul 27, 1999
• Expiry date: Apr 17, 2018

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01N2291/044
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

A system which enables the user to measure continuously or intermittently or by remote command the thickness changes, above or below the water, under variable temperature changes of underground culverts with reliability. A liquid delay is used to couple the sound to the culvert comprising a focused transducer (10) screwed into a hollow cone-like structure called a "squirter" or "bubbler" (11) providing the operator of the system a means for searching for good echoes from which calculations of thickness with a computer can be made using the known velocity and echo return times.