Ultrasonic system and method of gauging aircraft fuel and detecting battle damage
US6957582B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Jun 28, 2004 |
| Grant date | Oct 25, 2005 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jun 28, 2024 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01N2291/02836
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
An aircraft ultrasonic system for fuel gauging and battle damage detection comprises: at least one ultrasonic transducer disposed at a fuel tank of the aircraft; a first circuit for exciting the at least one ultrasonic transducer to transmit an acoustic pulse toward a surface of fuel in the tank, the at least one ultrasonic transducer operative to receive acoustic echo pulses reflected from the fuel surface and convert the acoustic echo pulses to electrical echo pulses, the at least one ultrasonic transducer also operative to receive acoustic compression wavefront pulses impinging thereon and convert the acoustic compression wavefront pulses to electrical compression wavefront pulses; and a second circuit for receiving and processing the electrical echo and compression wavefront pulses from the at least one ultrasonic transducer, the second circuit operative to perform fuel quantity measurements using the electrical echo pulses and to perform battle damage detection using the electrical compression wavefront pulses. A counterpart method is further disclosed.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.