| 摘要 |
An apparatus (180) and corresponding method for measuring a flow (110) within a region (260) surrounded by a wall of a pipe (100) is provided. The apparatus (180) includes a transducer arrangement (200, 300, 510, 540) disposed substantially around an external surface of the wall of the pipe (100) for emitting a plurality of beams (250A) of acoustic radiation into the region (260) and for receiving acoustic radiation (250A, 250B) transmitted through and/or reflected from the region (260), wherein: (a) the plurality of beams (250A, 250B) are arranged to interrogate sampling points off-axis and on-axis in a cross-section of the region (260) for determining whether the flow is laminar, transitional or turbulent; (b) the plurality of beams (250A, 250B) are employed in a repetitive manner to monitor temporal fluctuations in the flow (110); (c) the sensor arrangement (300, 510, 540) is operable to sense spatially varying attenuation of the received acoustic radiation thereat for determining an occurrence of one or more gas volumes (700) present within the region (260); (d) the transducer arrangement (200, 300) is employed for performing time-of-flight measurements for propagation of the acoustic radiation within the region (260) in upstream and downstream flow directions; and (e) the transducer arrangement (200, 300, 510, 540) is coupled to a corresponding signal processing arrangement for exciting the transducer arrangement (200, 300, 510, 540) and for processing received signals generate by the transducer arrangement (200, 300, 510, 540) to provide measurement output data representative of at least one of: flow velocity within the region (260), an indication of phases present in the region (260) (gas fraction), a flow rate through the region (260). The transducer arrangement may comprise a spatially distributed array of sensors implemented using a plurality of Bragg grating filter sensors distributed along one or more optical fibres. |
