Split Electronic Volume Corrector for Gas Metering
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electronic volume correctors (EVCs) face limitations due to battery power constraints, small memory, and complexity issues, making it difficult to implement advanced software features and certification, especially when trying to account for pressure, temperature, and composition variations in gas metering systems.
Innovation Solution
A distributed hardware approach is adopted, splitting the EVC into a sensor interface unit and a processing unit, where the sensor interface units collect data in hazardous zones and the processing unit performs corrections and networking functions in a safe zone, allowing for separate configuration and reduced battery consumption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a single integrated EVC is used to perform volume correction and data processing, then all functions are contained in one device, but the battery consumption increases and memory capacity is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The EVC system is divided into two separate units: a sensor interface unit that collects data from gas meters and sensors in hazardous zones, and a processing unit that performs volume correction calculations and stores data in a safe zone. This segmentation allows the processing unit to be powered by a larger battery or external power source, while the sensor interface unit consumes minimal power, thereby resolving the contradiction between functional integration and battery consumption.
2Measurement precision
If advanced software features are added to the EVC to handle composition variations and improve correction accuracy, then measurement precision improves, but device complexity and certification difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
Complex software features for handling gas composition variations and advanced correction algorithms are extracted from the sensor interface unit and implemented in the separate processing unit. This allows the sensor interface unit to remain simple and easy to certify, while the processing unit handles the computationally intensive and complex correction calculations, thereby resolving the contradiction between measurement precision and device complexity.
3Productivity
If the EVC processes multiple gas meter data simultaneously, then productivity increases, but memory requirements and processing complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
The processing unit consolidates data from multiple sensor interface units and gas meters into a single location with sufficient memory capacity. Instead of each sensor interface unit requiring its own large memory, the system merges data collection at distributed points with centralized processing and storage, thereby resolving the contradiction between productivity and memory requirements.
Data Source
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AI summary
An Electronic Volume Corrector (EVC) for measuring a flow of a gas in a gas line includes a plurality of EVC sensor interface units (130b) for collecting a plurality of sensed sensor parameters including uncorrected gas volume data (UGVD) from a gas meter (105, 106 or 107), a gas pressure from a gas pressure sensor (112) and gas temperature from a gas temperature sensor (111). An EVC processing unit (130a) is communicably connected to the EVC sensor interface units for performing volume correction for generating corrected GVD (CGVD) from the UGVD received from each of the EVC sensor interface units, data logging, and networking functions. The EVC sensor interface units and the EVC processing unit are configured independent including being physically separate from one another.