Patent ID: 9389108
Filing Date: 2016-07-12
CPC Classification: G01F,Y10T

Claim Text:
1. A flowmeter for detecting fluid flow rates comprising: a pipe through which the fluid flows; a tube having a channel with a longitudinal axis disposed in the pipe through which fluid in the pipe flows, the tube is made of a sound absorbing material so that essentially all non-fluid paths of sound are absorbed, the tube is made of a polymer filled with attenuative particles, wherein the particles are either metal, metal oxide, glass microspheres or rubber having a mesh size less or equal to the acoustic wavelength; an upstream ultrasonic transducer having a radius r in contact with the pipe and positioned in alignment with the channel so plane waves generated by the upstream transducer propagates through the channel in parallel with the longitudinal axis; a downstream ultrasonic transducer having a radius r in contact with the pipe and positioned in alignment with the channel so plane waves generated by the downstream transducer propagate through the channel in parallel with the longitudinal axis and are received by the upstream transducer which produces an upstream transducer signal, the downstream transducer receiving the plane waves from the upstream transducer and providing a downstream transducer signal, the upstream transducer and the downstream transducer extend through the pipe wall and acoustically communicate with the pipe interior; and a controller in communication with the upstream and downstream transducers which calculate fluid flow rate in the pipe from the upstream transducer signal and the downstream transducer signal.