Patent ID: 9631998
Date: 2017-04-25
CPC Classifications: G01L,G01M,G01N

Claim:
1. An apparatus for assisting with measurement of the pressure of a variable fluid flowing past a substantially planar, constant-surface substrate in a substantially linear and longitudinal local fluid flow direction, the apparatus comprising: a substantially planar cover layer having longitudinally spaced leading and trailing cover edges, laterally spaced first and second cover side edges, and oppositely facing upper and lower cover surfaces transversely separated by a cover layer thickness, at least the lower cover surface defining a cover layer footprint in a longitudinal-lateral plane, and a cover aperture extending through the cover layer thickness to fluidly connect the upper and lower cover surfaces; a substantially planar spacer layer having longitudinally spaced leading and trailing spacer edges, laterally spaced first and second spacer side edges, and oppositely facing upper and lower spacer surfaces transversely separated by a spacer layer thickness, at least the lower spacer surface defining a spacer layer footprint in the longitudinal-lateral plane, the spacer layer footprint having a smaller area than the area of the cover layer footprint, and the spacer layer footprint being bounded in the longitudinal-lateral plane by a spacer layer perimeter; a cavity having an upper cavity surface defined by the lower cover surface, the upper cavity surface including the leading cover edge and the cover aperture, and the cavity having a side cavity perimeter in the longitudinal-lateral plane at least partially defined by the spacer layer perimeter; and a measuring tube having leading and trailing tube ends longitudinally separated by a tube body, the measuring tube being located adjacent to the upper cover surface, the leading tube end having a length which is a superminority of the length of the tube body, the measuring tube including a tube lumen extending longitudinally through the tube body between a leading lumen aperture at the leading tube end and a trailing lumen aperture longitudinally spaced from the leading lumen aperture, the leading lumen aperture being in fluid communication with the cavity via the cover aperture, and the trailing lumen aperture being in fluid communication with a pressure measuring device; wherein, when the lower spacer surface is connected to the substrate, the substrate defines a lower cavity surface, extant fluid being at least partially contained within the cavity, and variable fluid flowing in the substantially linear and longitudinal local fluid flow direction interacts with the extant fluid within the cavity at least adjacent the leading cover edge, and at least a portion of the variable fluid flowing in the substantially linear and longitudinal local fluid flow direction exerting pressure upon the extant fluid to generate an extant fluid pressure level which is physically transmitted from the cavity through the cover aperture, into the tube lumen through the leading lumen aperture, and is made available for measurement, as an extant fluid pressure value, through at least a portion of the tube lumen.