Study on the Development of Multi-Path Ultrasonic Gas Flow Meter

This study describes the development of a multi-path ultrasonic gas flow meter using a transit time method. The system includes five pairs of ultrasonic transducers, an ultrasonic signal processing unit using the switch matrix method, computation algorithm of gas flow rate, and a spool piece type of multi-path pipe unit. It has an enhanced main ultrasonic signal processing unit that simultaneously operates five pairs of ultrasonic transducers using a switch matrix method. It has more compact signal-processing unit than the conventional hardware system because of using a switch matrix method. Additionally, it is using a new signal processing algorithm to calculate ultrasonic transit time by information on the gradient of the received signal. Laboratory tests using a calibration system have confirmed its reliability as a multi-path ultrasonic gas flow meter. Then, we are performing the field test for 6 months to estimate the performance of the developed system in the POSCO gas line.