An Intelligent Ultrasonic Flowmeter for Improved Flow Measurement and Flow Calibration Facility

Published

May 1, 2001

Author(s)

Tsyh Tyan Yeh, Pedro I. Espina, S A. Osella

Abstract

Increasing needs for flow traceability have forced metrologists to look for novel ways to improve the calibration standards for flow. The NIST Fluid Flow Group uses an advanced ultrasonic flow meter (AUFM) to improve the flow measurement and to measure the dynamic properties of a calibration facility. Ultrasonic technology is evolving rapidly these technical advances can significantly improve flow measurement in the continuous process industries. The AUFM couples multi-path ultrasonic sensing capabilities with attern recognition software to provide likely flow fields and their probability of existence. The knowledge encoded in the AUFM is derived from training exercises that use computational fluid dynamics and experimental results to teach a flow field recognizer (FFR) via learning algorithm schemes. A plastic four-path prototype flowmeter has been used to demonstrate the operation principle of the AUFM. The four path meter has successfully identified flow field patters among several selected flow fields. The tests also indicated the ability of the FFR to identify flow patterns increases as the accuracy of the sensor increases and decreases as the number of flow patterns increases. Also, in addition to being used as flow diagnostic tools, the use of the AUFM could prove beneficial in field applications where installation effects can lead to gross errors when ultrasonic signals are evaluated using conventional integration.

Proceedings Title

Instrumentation and Measurementt, Conference | 18th | Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference, 2001 | IEEE

Volume

2001

Issue

3

Conference Dates

May 1, 2001

Conference Location

Budapest, HU

Conference Title

IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference

Pub Type

Conferences

Keywords

AUFM, FFR, flow measurement, fluid dynamics, ultrasonic

Citation

, T. , Espina, P. and Osella, S. (2001), An Intelligent Ultrasonic Flowmeter for Improved Flow Measurement and Flow Calibration Facility, Instrumentation and Measurementt, Conference | 18th | Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference, 2001 | IEEE, Budapest, HU (Accessed October 17, 2025)