Patent ID: 7520162

Claim:
A vibration meter for measuring a viscosity of a fluid flowing through a pipe, which vibration meter comprises: a transducer assembly with at least one flow tube being inserted into the pipe, said flow tube having a lumen conducting the fluid and said flow tube being clamped at an inlet end and an outlet end so as to be capable of vibrating, with an electromechanical excitation arrangement, said excitation arrangement driving said flow tube to oscillate in a bending mode at least partially for producing viscous friction within the fluid, and with a sensor arrangement, responsive to oscillations of the flow tube, for generating at least one sensor signal, representative of lateral deflections of the flow tube; and meter electronics with an excitation circuit which generates an excitation current feeding the excitation arrangement, and with an evaluating circuit which estimates from said at least one sensor signal and from the excitation current a damping of oscillations of said flow tube and which derives a viscosity value representative of the viscosity of the fluid based on said damping being estimated.