Self-characterizing vibrating conduit parameter sensors and methods of operation therefor

Abstract

A self-characterizing vibrating conduit sensor for measuring a process parameter in a material processing system includes a conduit configured to contain material from the material processing system and a plurality of motion transducers operative to produce a plurality of motion signals representing motion at a plurality of locations on the conduit. A modal parameter estimator is configured to receive the plurality of motion signals and operative to estimate a modal parameter from the received plurality of motion signals. The modal parameter, e.g., a modal filter parameter or a force projection parameter, relates behavior of the conduit to behavior of a single degree of freedom (SDOF) system. A process parameter estimator is configured to receive the plurality of motion signals, responsive to the modal parameter estimator and operative to estimate a process parameter associated with a material in the conduit from the received plurality of motion signals according to the estimated modal parameter. Techniques for estimating a modal parameter include a modified reciprocal modal vector (MRMV) estimation technique and an adaptive modal filtering technique.