Analyzing the Fluid Flow of Transit-Time Ultrasonic Flowmeter with Image Processing Technique and Developing a Quality Metric Depending on Pipe Profile

Abstract

The ultrasonic transit-time method measures the velocity and quantity of fluids in circular type pipes by using the difference of transit time between the ultrasonic pulses propagating with and against the flow direction. This method gives the average velocity of the fluid along a particular acoustic path. At least two ultrasonic transducers are used for an acoustic path. The multipath ultrasonic flowmeters have more acoustic paths. In this paper, the acoustic path between two transducers is described as pixels for the turbulent flow and formed a flow map for ideal flow conditions such as no elbow or bend depending on pipe profile. Using the obtained pixel values, the average fluid velocity is calculated between two transducers. Finally, a quality metric that calculates the ideal average fluid velocity ratio between the acoustic paths for the turbulent flow is developed. Thus, researchers can evaluate their designs with this quality metric.

Keywords

• Fluid Flow
• Image Processing
• Quality Index
• Ultrasonic Flowmeter

References

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