| 摘要 |
Each barge in a group of river-going tanker barges, has a double-hull construction to protect the inner hull and avoid collision-induced cargo spills. The space between hulls is partitioned to individual empty, dry compartments with a vertical, open bottomed, measuring tube fixed in each. A closed-bottom master tube is fixed in one compartment. All tubes have a quick-connect, above-deck, flange to receive an ultrasonic transducer thereon. A hand-held measuring instrument containing a computer and controls and information display contains a transducer which is selectively pulsed to periodically send ultrasonic signals down the tube, and receive echo signals, with elapsed time representing the depth of a signal reflector surface which is the master tube bottom or, for the measuring tubes, the bottom of a dry compartment or the surface of liquid in a leaking compartment. A unique bar code with each tube, distinguishes it and the barge from all others. The measuring instrument includes a code reader. In one embodiment, an individual transducer is on each tube, and connectable by an electrical cable to the measuring instrument. The apparatus is also used in cargo compartment tanks for cargo surface level measurement.
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