Towards a calibration-free ultrasonic clamp-on flow meter: Pipe geometry measurements using matrix arrays: Pipe geometry measurements using matrix arrays

Current ultrasonic clamp-on flow meters are manually calibrated. This process is based on manual placement of two single-element transducers along a pipe wall. Due to the usually unknown pipe properties and inhomogeneities in the pipe geometry, the axial distance of the transducers needs to be manually calibrated to align the location of the...

An Algorithm to Minimize the Zero-Flow Error in Transit-Time Ultrasonic Flow Meters

Transit-time ultrasonic flow meters are widely used in industry to measure fluid flow. In practice ultrasonic flow meters either show a zero-flow error or suffer from a significant random error due to a limited signal-to-noise ratio, requiring a significant amount of averaging to achieve good precision. This work presents a method that minimizes...

Measurement of Pipe and Fluid Properties with a Matrix Array-based Ultrasonic Clamp-on Flow Meter

Current ultrasonic clamp-on flow meters consist of a pair of single-element transducers that are carefully positioned before use. This positioning process consists of manually finding the distance between the transducer elements, along the pipe axis, for which maximum signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is achieved. This distance depends on the sound...

Exploiting nonlinear wave propagation to improve the precision of ultrasonic flow meters

Acoustic wave propagation in ultrasonic flow measurements is typically assumed to be linear and reciprocal. However, if the transmitting transducer generates a sufficiently high pressure, nonlinear wave propagation effects become significant. In flow measurements, this would translate into more information to estimate the flow and therefore a...

A Transceiver ASIC for a Single-Cable 64-Element Intra-Vascular Ultrasound Probe

This article presents an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designed for intra-vascular ultrasound imaging that interfaces 64 piezoelectric transducer elements to an imaging system using a single micro-coaxial cable. Thus, it allows a single-element transducer to be replaced by a transducer array to enable 3-D imaging. The 1.5-mm...

Measurement of Pipe and Liquid Parameters Using the Beam Steering Capabilities of Array-Based Clamp-On Ultrasonic Flow Meters

Clamp-on ultrasonic flow meters (UFMs) are installed on the outside of the pipe wall. Typically, they consist of two single-element transducers mounted on angled wedges, which are acoustically coupled to the pipe wall. Before flow metering, the transducers are placed at the correct axial position by manually moving one transducer along the pipe...

Design and Proof-of-Concept of a Matrix Transducer Array for Clamp-on Ultrasonic Flow Measurements

Common clamp-on ultrasonic flow meters consist of two single-element transducers placed on the pipe wall. Flow speed is measured noninvasively, i.e., without interrupting the flow and without perforating the pipe wall, which also minimizes safety risks and avoids pressure drops inside the pipe. However, before metering, the transducers have...

Algorithm to Correct Measurement Offsets Introduced by Inactive Elements of Transducer Arrays in Ultrasonic Flow Metering

Ultrasonic flow meters (UFMs) based on transducer arrays offer several advantages. With electronic beam steering, it is possible to tune the steering angle of the beam for optimal signal-tonoise ratio (SNR) upon reception. Moreover, multiple beams can be generated to propagate through different travel paths, covering a wider section of the...