Intelligent System for Measuring the Level and Mass of Liquid in Fuel Reservoirs and Tanks During Pitching and Tilting

This paper presents an overview of existing methods for measuring liquid level and their disadvantages in the case of surface oscillations. Additionally, the paper proposes a system for continuous measurement of the mass of liquids in fuel reservoirs and tanks during pitching and tilting of vehicles and ships. The system is implemented in a level gage based on intelligent sensors. The sensors include a microcontroller with a calibration characteristic of the volume versus level dependence, and they consider the shape of the reservoir or fuel tank; moreover, nanosensors are integrated into the intelligent sensor for measuring density, permittivity, and ambient temperature. The actual metrological characteristics of the intelligent sensors are significantly higher than those of the traditional sensors. Moreover, the number and dimensions of the plates of low-profile capacitors are justified, and the scheme of their arrangement on the roof of the tanks is presented. The exclusion of movable elements increases the operation reliability and simplifies the maintenance and design requirements of the measuring object. This paper also presents analytical expressions for calculating the level and mass of the liquid implemented by the microcontroller. The use of the proposed measurement system with complex computational processing and the application of corrections for temperature, density, humidity, and permittivity of the liquid increase the accuracy and stability of the level gage readings. Finally, analytical expressions that relate the liquid level and output frequency of the generator are deduced.