Patent attributes
A flow measuring apparatus measures a fluid flow within a conduit including a wall. The apparatus includes a transducer arrangement including at least two transducers for alternately emitting and receiving ultrasonic radiation through the conduit wall and the flow. The apparatus also includes a signal processing arrangement for generating signals to excite the transducer arrangement and for processing received signals provided by the transducer arrangement for generating output signals from the signal processing arrangement indicative of properties of the flow. The transducer arrangement in cooperation with the conduit provides a first path for Lamb-wave ultrasonic radiation coupling directly from a first of the at least two transducers, to a second of said at least two transducers to generate a first received signal. The transducer arrangement in cooperation with the conduit provides at least one second path for ultrasonic propagation along the wall via Lamb waves coupling to at least a portion of the flow from a first of the at least two transducers to a second of the at least two transducers to generate a second received signal. The signal processing arrangement determines from said first and second received signals ultrasonic radiation propagation time periods through the first path and through the at least one second path, and to perform computational operations on the propagation time periods to determine properties of the flow including, but not limited to, at least one of: fluid flow velocity (v) in the conduit, a sound velocity (c) through the fluid.
