Continuous measurement of vehicle fuel consumption rate - uses heater in fuel line pulsed at rate according to speed and measurement of actual temp. rise

摘要

The device measures the rate of consumption of a fluid relative to a variable quantity, e.g. the speed of a vehicle. An intermediate system is placed in the main fluid flowline. Heat is introduced into this fluid at a rate varied in proportion to the variable quantity. The increase in temperature of the fluid flowing through the system is then measured. The system may comprise two channels between which the fluid is divided in a known ratio, pref. 50%-50%, with the heat source being in one of the channels. The heat source may be an electrical resistance with the heat produced varied by using an electrical pulse generator to feed the resistance, the frequency of the pulses being proportional to the variable quantity. Thus the energy of each pulse is known and may be fed to the heating resistance via a discharging condenser.