AN APPARATUS HAVING AN ARRAY OF CLAMP ON PIEZOELECTRIC FILM SENSORS FOR MEASURING PARAMETERS OF A PROCESS FLOW WITHIN A PIPE

摘要

A apparatus (10, 110, 170) is provided that measures the speed of sound and/orvortical disturbances propagating in a single phase fluid flow and/ormultiphase mixture to determine parameters, such as mixture quality, particlesize, vapor/mass ratio, liquid/vapor ratio, mass flow rate, enthalpy andvolumetric flow rate of the flow in a pipe, by measuring acoustic and/ordynamic pressures. The apparatus includes a spatial array of unsteady pressuresensors (15-18) placed at predetermined axial locations x1 - xN disposedaxially along the pipe (14). The pressure sensors (15-18) provide acousticpressure signals P1(t) - PN(t) to a signal processing unit (30) whichdetermines the speed of sound amix propagating through of the process flow(12) flowing in the pipe (14). The pressure sensors are piezoelectric filmsensors that are clamped onto the outer surface of the pipe at the respectiveaxial location.