OPERATION FEATURES OF AN ULTRASONIC FLOW TRANSDUCER WITH A COMPLEX TRAJECTORY OF THE MEASURING PATH

Abstract

To measure the flowrate of fuel and energy resources, different methods are used, which determine the range of measuring instruments. Instruments based on ultrasonic measurement methods are widely used in measurement practice due to the provision of high accuracy, a wide range of measured flowrates, the absence of additional pressure losses and the design simplicity. Such instruments are easily integrated into automated readout systems for collecting and transmitting information. The asymmetry of the measured medium flow is a significant problem in the use of single-channel ultrasonic meters. This issue is successfully solved by using multi-channel flow transducers.
 The disadvantages of multi-channel ultrasonic flow transducers include a significant complication of the hydraulic channel design, the need to use more complex mathematical algorithms for processing the obtained output signal. This requires the use of high performance electronic elements, first of all microprocessors.
 The use of a transducer with multiple reflection of one measuring beam from the wall of the measuring path acts as an alternative to multi-channel measurement.
 The aim of the work is to create a mathematical model of an ultrasonic flow transducer with a complex measuring path trajectory. For research, a scheme with sounding along three chords was chosen, which implements the time-pulse measurement method, it provides for determining the flow rate by the difference in the time of passage of the measuring path along the flow and against it. In this case, the projections of the chords on the cross section of the measuring section create an equilateral triangle. An analytical expression for the conversion response is obtained for the case of several beam reflections in different planes.
 The authors reproduced the hydraulic part of the investigated flow transducer using simulation modeling implemented on the basis of the finite element method. Transducer’s operation simulation in the range of measured flow rates in the conditions of an ideally formed profile of the gas flow velocity in the transducer inlet cross-section has been carried out. The results obtained confirmed the absence of influence of the measuring circuit elements (beam reflectors) on the flow profile and the measuring beam trajectory.