Measuring and testing – Vibration – By mechanical waves
Patent
1997-06-20
2000-04-11
Williams, Hezron
Measuring and testing
Vibration
By mechanical waves
G01N 2900
Patent
active
060476028
ABSTRACT:
A waveguide couples ultrasonic energy from a source on one side of a fluid-bounding wall, such as a conduit, into fluid on the other side of the wall. The waveguide has a buffer that couples to the source, and a seat with an exit face, while an intermediate portion contains a redirecting surface for internally redirecting energy propagated along the buffer toward the exit face to exit as a narrow directed beam. The waveguide core has a rectangular cross section which is narrow, i.e., has an aspect ratio above two and preferably above three or four, while the buffer has a length effective to thermally isolate or protect the source from the conduit. The waveguide attaches easily, either as a clamp-on or welded unit, to a pipe or spoolpiece, allowing local fabrication of massive or custom flow cells, such as large spoolpieces with Gauss-Chebyshev interrogation paths. Several guides may be positioned in an array to cover interrogation paths for an extended range of sound speeds or flow rates. In one embodiment the redirecting face may be curved, or stepped at different angles, to provide output beams at several or a continuum of exit angles. A low sound speed material may be added to control the refraction angle of the exit beam in the wall or fluid. The construction readily adapts to wetted systems. The waveguide may have the overall shape of a hockey stick, with the buffer and the seat lying in a common plane, or one may curve into, or join at an angle, the other. Features such as holes, notches or the like may provide reference echoes for a flow meter to automatically calculate temperature-dependent transit time corrections for the buffer, and additional reflective surfaces or topological features such as holes may redirect echoes or noise out of the measurement path. In one embodiment, the buffer is a thin tube which couples shear waves into the seat portion, which has a rectangular cross section.
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Lynnworth, L.C. et al: "300 degrees C clamp-on ultrasonic transducers for measuring water flow and level" 1996 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium Proceedings (Cat. No. 96CH35993), 1996 IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium. Proceedings, San Antonio, TX, USA Nov. 3-6, 1996, ISBN 0-7803-3615-1, 1996, New York, NY, USA, IEEE, USA, pp. 407-412 vol. 1 XP002056989.
Falkoff Michael I.
Moller Richard A.
Panametrics, Inc.
Williams Hezron
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