Patent · US Expired

Method for acoustically measuring a fluid flow rate

US6119070A · kind A · utility

11Cited by
5References
24Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateMar 23, 1998
Grant dateSep 12, 2000
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 23, 2018

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG01P5/245
  • WIPO fieldMeasurement
  • WIPO sectorInstruments

Abstract

A method for measuring a fluid flow rate between two points of a fluid flow according to which a measurement of the respective propagation times of two acoustic signals transmitted in opposite directions is combined with a measurement of acoustic phase shifts respectively induced in each signal. Each received signal is sampled and digitized and the corresponding acoustic phase shift is determined by synchronous detection. During successive iterations, a programmable phase shift dependent on the value of the acoustic phase shift obtained by synchronous detection in the previous iteration is determined for each iteration, so that the result of the synchronous detection step in the current iteration is as close as possible to zero, and the acoustic phase shift is therefore substantially the same as the last programmable phase shift.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.