Methods of acoustic control of reservoir liquid level for portable measuring devices

Abstract

The paper is devoted to developing methods of acoustic control for multifunctional device for measuring the level of liquid in tanks, as well as the length and diameter of pipes. To measure the level of the liquid filling in the tank a wave guide is installed, where additional sound reflectors are placed inside at known distances, which reflect part of the acoustic wave back to the receiver. When analyzing the data on the amplitude and time of propagation, it becomes possible to determine the speed of sound in the interval between adjacent reflectors, which significantly increases the accuracy of level measurement. The method of tube length measurement is based on mathematical processing of the acoustic signal reflected from the open end of the tube and allows obtaining information about the length, diameter of the tube simultaneously. During practical tests a prototype of the device was created, which showed an error of liquid level measurement of 0.1%. In a tube length measuring mode an error on the tube length of 5 m made no more than 0.12%, an error of measurement of tube diameter equal to 110 mm made no more than 7%.