SNAS648C October 2014 – February 2023 TDC1000
PRODUCTION DATA
Transit-time ultrasonic flow meters works based on the principle that sound waves in a moving fluid travel faster in the direction of flow (downstream), and slower in the opposite direction of flow (upstream).
The system requires at least two transducers. The first transducer operates as a transmitter during the upstream cycle and as a receiver during the downstream cycle, and the second transducer operates as a receiver during the upstream cycle and as a transmitter during the downstream cycle. An ultrasonic flow meter operates by alternating transmit and receive cycles between the pair of transducers and accurately measuring the time-of-flight both directions.
In this example, the upstream TOF is defined as:
where
In this example, the downstream TOF is defined as:
where
The difference of TOF is defined as:
where
After the difference in time-of-flight (ΔTOF) is calculated, the water velocity inside the pipe can be related to the ΔTOF using the following equation:
where
Finally, the mass flow rate can be calculated as follows:
where