1022results about "Indirect mass flowmeters" patented technology

A gas delivery system accurately measures and optionally regulates mass flow rate in real time. A fluid conduit connects an inlet valve, calibration volume, flow restrictor, and outlet valve in series. Pressure and temperature sensors are coupled to the calibration volume. One or more pressure sensors may be attached across the flow restrictor. Alternatively, an absolute pressure sensor may be attached upstream of the flow restrictor. One embodiment of differential pressure sensors comprises a floating reference differential pressure sensor, including a first transducer attached to the fluid conduit upstream of the flow restrictor and a second transducer attached to the conduit downstream of the flow restrictor. In this embodiment, each transducer receives a reference pressure from a reference source, and optionally, after the calibration volume is charged, the floating reference differential pressure transducers are calibrated. When gas flow is initiated, differential and/or absolute pressure measurements are repeatedly taken, and a measured mass flow rate calculated thereon. Gas flow is adjusted until the measured mass flow rate reaches a target mass flow. Using the temperature/pressure sensors at the calibration volume, repeated calculations of actual flow rate are made to uncover any discrepancy between actual and measured mass flow rates. Whenever a discrepancy is found, the manner of calculating measured mass flow is conditioned to account for the discrepancy; thus, the measured mass flow rate more accurately represents the actual mass flow rate thereby providing an actual mass flow rate more accurately achieving the target mass flow rate.

A system for determining the density, flow velocity, and mass flow of a fluid comprising at least one sing-around circuit that determines the velocity of a signal in the fluid and that is correlatable to a database for the fluid. A system for determining flow velocity uses two of the inventive circuits with directional transmitters and receivers, one of which is set at an angle to the direction of flow that is different from the others.

A gas flow rate measurement apparatus for obtaining a normalized flow rate of a gas having at least one liquid component. The gas travels from an upstream position and in a downstream direction. The gas flow rate measurement apparatus comprises a gas inlet conduit in the upstream position for receiving the gas; a gas flow conditioning section in fluid communication with the gas inlet conduit and in a first downstream position for conditioning the gas to vaporize substantially all of the at least one liquid component without adding any other gas; a flow rate measurement section in fluid communication with the gas flow conditioning section and in a second downstream position more distant from the upstream position than the first downstream position, the flow rate measurement section including at least one sensor for sensing at least one state variable for the gas and generating at least one gas state signal, and a flow rate sensor for measuring an actual flow rate of the gas and generating a flow rate signal, and a processing device operatively coupled to the flow rate measurement section for using the at least one gas state signal and the flow rate signal to obtain the normalized mass flow rate. A related method also is provided.

A system to measure fluid flow characteristics in a pipeline, meter, and methods includes a pipeline having a passageway to transport flowing fluid therethrough, a process density meter including at least portions thereof positioned within the pipeline to provide flowing fluid characteristics including volumetric flow rate, fluid density, and mass flow rate of the flowing fluid, and a fluid characteristic display to display the fluid characteristics. The process density meter includes a vortex-shedding body positioned within the pipeline to form vortices and a vortex meter having a vortex frequency sensor to measure the frequency of the vortices and to determine the volumetric flow rate. The process density meter further includes a differential pressure meter positioned adjacent the vortex-shedding body to produce a differential pressure meter flow rate signal indicative of the density of fluid when flowing through the pipeline. The process density meter also includes a thermal flow meter positioned adjacent the vortex-shedding body to produce a mass flow rate signal indicative of the mass flow rate of fluid when flowing through the pipeline. The process density meter produces an output of a volumetric flow rate, a flowing fluid density, and a mass flow rate to be displayed by the fluid characteristic display.

A flow meter obtains the individual flow rates of gas, liquid hydrocarbons, and water in a predominantly gas-containing flowing fluid mixture.

The flow meter comprises a water content meter (7) provides a signal representing a measure of the water content of said fluid.

It also comprises a double differential pressure generating (3) and measuring (4) structure, denoted a DDP-unit (2), that provides two measurement signals (6A and 6B) representing two independent values of differential pressure (DP) in said fluid (1).

In addition to the above, the meter also comprises a signal processing unit (8) having inputs (9A-C) for receiving the measurement signals and the water content signal, and a calculation module (10) which calculates values representing the volumetric flow rates of said gas, liquid hydrocarbons and water in said fluid.

A mass flow controller includes a mass flow sensor and a calibrator configured to perform a self-calibration on the mass flow controller. The calibrator generates flow measurements that are used as “standards” and flow measurements from the mass flow sensor are correlated to flow measurements from the calibrator.

The vortex flow sensor is designed to measure the mass flow rate, the volumetric flow rate, or the flow velocity of a fluid flowing in a flow tube having a tube wall, and has two temperature sensors arranged in such a way that the vortex flow sensor may also be used with fluids which would corrode the temperature sensors. A bluff body in the flow tube sheds vortices and thus causes pressure fluctuations. A vortex sensor device responsive thereto is fitted downstream of the bluff body in a hole provided in the wall of the flow tube. The vortex sensor device comprises a sensor vane extending into the fluid. The temperature sensors are disposed in a blind hole of the sensor vane. Alternatively, the temperature sensor may be disposed in blind hole of the bluff body.

A system for measuring a pulsed mass flow rate of gas passing from an upstream source of gas to a downstream process chamber through an on/off type valve of the source of gas. The system includes a passageway for connecting the source of gas to the process chamber, a flow restrictor device dividing the passageway into an upstream portion and a downstream portion, a pressure transducer providing measurements of pressure within the upstream portion of the passageway, a temperature probe providing measurements of temperature within the upstream portion of the passageway, and a CPU connected to the pressure transducer and the temperature probe. The CPU is programmed to receive pressure measurements from the pressure transducer, temperature measurements from the temperature probe, and calculate a mass flow rate through the passageway using the pressure measurements and the temperature measurements.

A method for determining the flow rates of a fluid comprising a multi-component mixture of a gas and at least one liquid in a pipe, the method comprising the following steps: a) the multi-component mixture flow is conditioned to create a symmetrical annular gas concentration flow condition, b) the density distribution and/or dielectric constant distribution in said symmetrical flow within a cross-section of the pipe is determined, c) a function describing the radial distribution of density and/or radial distribution of dielectric constant is determined, d) the velocity of the multi-component mixture is determined, e) the temperature and pressure are obtained, and, f) based on the knowledge of densities and/or dielectric constants of the components of the fluid mixture, and the result from the above steps a-e, the volume and/or mass flow rates of the gas and liquid components of the fluid mixture are calculated. An apparatus for performing the method is also disclosed.

A mass flow controller includes an electronic controller for which a plurality of closed loop control codes sets may be uploaded. In a dual processor embodiment, one processor may upload a plurality of codes sets for another, with the selection of codes sets determined by the uploading processor either autonomously or through user interaction.

A vortex flow pickup serves for measuring mass flow, volume flow or flow velocity of a fluid which is flowing in a measuring tube having a tube wall, and has a temperature sensor arranged in such a way that the vortex flow pickup may also be used together with those fluids which corrode the temperature sensor. A bluff body which produces vortices, and consequently pressure fluctuations, is arranged in the measuring tube. A vortex sensor responding to these pressure fluctuations is fitted downstream of the bluff body in a bore of the tube wall of the measuring tube. The vortex sensor comprises a diaphragm which covers the bore and on which a sensor vane protruding into the fluid is fastened. The temperature sensor is fixed on the bottom of a blind hole of the sensor vane. On the side of the diaphragm lying opposite the sensor vane, a sensor element is fastened. The temperature sensor may alternatively be arranged in a longitudinal bore of the bluff body.

Systems and methods for measuring the flow of a fluid along a passageway are disclosed. A heat source applies thermal energy to a portion of the fluid thereby elevating its temperature and decreasing its density. An optical sensing means measures a change in a property of illumination directed through the passageway caused by the change in the density of the heated portion of fluid. The time required for the heated portion of the liquid to move from the point of application of thermal energy to the point of optical sensing is measured. This measured time, and the distance of separation of the source of heat and the optical sensor permits calculation of the fluid velocity in the passageway.

A mass flow controller includes an electronic controller that provides a web server that allows access to the web server through such interworking networks as the Internet.

The invention discloses an air duct flow measuring system. The air duct flow measuring system comprises a shell, a reverse pressure adjusting device, a rectifying device, a total pressure measurement rake, a Laval spraying tube and a static pressure measuring device, wherein the shell is cylindrical; a connector is arranged at the front end of the shell; an expansion section is arranged at the rear end of the connector and is used for reducing the speed of incoming flow; a straight section is arranged behind the expansion section; the reverse pressure adjusting device comprises a throttling cone and a driving control mechanism; the throttling cone is arranged in the expansion section; the driving control mechanism is arranged in the straight section; the rectifying device, the total pressure measurement rack and the Laval spraying tube are sequentially arranged in the straight section and behind the driving control mechanism; an outlet of the Laval spraying tube is parallel and level to a rear end opening of the shell; and the static pressure measuring device is arranged at the throat of the Laval spraying tube. By the air duct flow measuring system, reverse pressure of an outlet of the double-spraying air duct can be adjusted in real time, the flow of air flowing into the double-spraying air duct can be measured accurately, and the air flowing in the air duct can be sucked according to specific test conditions so as to increase the flow of the air and meet requirements of a test on the air duct.

A multiphase flow meter used in conjunction with an electrical submersible pump system in a well bore includes sensors to determine and transmit well bore pressure measurements, including tubing and down hole pressure measurements. The multiphase flow meter also includes at least one artificial neural network device to be used for outputting flow characteristics of the well bore. The artificial neural network device is trained to output tubing and downhole flow characteristics responsive to multiphase-flow pressure gradient calculations and pump and reservoir models, combined with standard down-hole pressure, tubing surface pressure readings, and the frequency applied to the electrical submersible pump motor.