Flush mounted ultrasonic transducer arrays for flow measurement

摘要

A flow meter system includes a first ultrasonic transducer array to be flush-mounted to a pipe. The system also includes a second ultrasonic transducer array to be flush-mounted to the pipe. The system further includes a controller coupled to the first and second ultrasonic transducer arrays and configured to cause bidirectional beam steering between the first and second ultrasonic transducer arrays.

主权项

1. A method, comprising:
providing a first set of signals to a plurality of transducers in a first ultrasonic transducer array flush-mounted in a pipe such that each such signal in the first set has a different phase than the other signals in the first set; receiving ultrasonic signals transmitted by the transducers of the first ultrasonic transducer array at a second ultrasonic transducer array flush-mounted in the pipe, the second ultrasonic transducer array also comprising a plurality of transducers and the received ultrasonic signals received by at least one transducer of the second ultrasonic transducer array; providing a second set of signals to a plurality of transducers in a second ultrasonic transducer array such that each such signal in the second set has a different phase than the other signals in the second set; receiving ultrasonic signals transmitted by the transducers of the second ultrasonic transducer array at the first ultrasonic transducer array, the ultrasonic signals received by the first ultrasonic transducer array being received by at least one transducer of the first ultrasonic transducer array; and determining a flow rate based on the ultrasonic signals received by each of the first and second ultrasonic transducer arrays.