SNAS648C October 2014 – February 2023 TDC1000
PRODUCTION DATA
The TDC1000 can be used to measure the time-of-flight for a known distance to calculate the speed of sound (cmedium) in the fluid. This application uses the same circuitry as the level example but a transducer in a different configuration connected to the second channel. In this example, the speed of sound in the fluid (cmedium) is measured by using transducer A.
The temperature can also be measured to compensate for the temperature variation of sound. With the known distance, TOF and temperature, the speed of sound in the fluid can be determined and the identity of the medium verified.
After measuring the time-of-flight for the fixed distance, the speed of sound can be calculated as follows:
where
The measurement process is identical to the level example above. The speed of sound can be used to uniquely identify a variety of fluids. In this example, the concentration of diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) is measured with a desired accuracy resolution of 0.5% of concentration variation. For most fluids, the speed of sound varies over temperature, so every application will be different. In this example, all samples were all at ambient temperature of 23°C.