Multi-Angle Liquid Flow Measurement Using Ultrasonic Linear Array Transducer

Abstract

Most ultrasonic flowmeters utilize several wedge sensors for transmission and reception. Thus, the location and alignment of the sensors are critical factors that determine the performance of the ultrasonic flowmeter. In this study, we proposed an ultrasound liquid flowmeter utilizing a 128-element linear array transducer with a transmit delay control for varying the incidence angles of ultrasound wave transmission. The performance of the flowmeter was evaluated at flow rates of 0–50 L/min in a specially designed pipe system. Flow estimation was performed with the transit-time method using cross-correlation with phase zero-crossing for sub-sample estimation. While a single plane wave approach performed invasive electromagnetic measurements with only 74% accuracy as a reference, a multiple angular compensation method with 24 angles was proposed to increase the accuracy of measurements up to 93%. This study demonstrated the capability of the non-invasive single-sided ultrasonic flowmeter with a linear array transducer for liquid flow measurements in the metal pipe system.

Measuring the Fluid Flow Velocity and Its Uncertainty Using Monte Carlo Method and Ultrasonic Technique

“…The flowmeter performance was assessed at 0-50 litter / min flow rates in a specifically constructed pipe system. Flow velocity estimate was carried out using the transition time technique using crosscorrelation with the zero-phase transition for estimation of the sub-sample [13]. In this study, the fluid is considered nearly incompressible and generally characterized by high Reynolds number, and used to measure fluid flow velocity in a metal conduit system.…”

Intelligent Ultrasonic Flow Measurement Using Linear Array Transducer With Recurrent Neural Networks

“…The transmission frequency of the transducer was 5.2 MHz, and the data acquisition sampling rate was 20.8 MHz. Based on the angles of the transmitted plane waves, the received ultrasound RF signals of the matching transmitter and receiver elements for the single path were selected for the flow rate estimation ( Table 1 in [9]). The transmission angle used in this study was in the range of 19.88°-20.38°.…”

“…2) were acquired at varying flow rates and also when there was no flow in the pipe. The data acquired in the no-flow condition was used for zero-flow calibration, which compensated the time-shift offsets arising due to the physical conditions of the pipe and sensors [9]. In our previous study, the transit-time difference estimation was performed using the XCorr method [9].…”

“…The data acquired in the no-flow condition was used for zero-flow calibration, which compensated the time-shift offsets arising due to the physical conditions of the pipe and sensors [9]. In our previous study, the transit-time difference estimation was performed using the XCorr method [9]. In the transit-time estimation process, the acquired RF data were transformed into analytic signals via the Hilbert transform.…”

“…Our previous study [9] demonstrated the feasibility of a transit-time ultrasonic flowmeter employing an ultrasonic linear array transducer in a designed pipe system. The transittime difference was estimated by the cross-correlation with phase zero-crossing (XCorr) method.…”