An Advanced Fuel Flowmeter for Large Flow Rates

Statement of the Problem: The key to precise metering and control of hydrogen/gases is ensuring that the equipment installed to perform the task is accurate, reliable, and minimized intrusive. Most industrial non-intrusive flowmeters are designed using ultrasonic technology. The main issue with this technology is that the accuracy can be reduced by changes in temperature, pressure, and flow rate. Currently, conventional ultrasonic flow meters in the market cannot maintain the accuracy (~ 2%) for hydrogen/gases of large flow rates. Proposed Solution: To address this critical need, X-wave Innovations, Inc. (XII) proposes to develop an Ultrasonic Tomographic Fuel Flowmeter, called UTFF, for non-intrusive measurement of hydrogen/gas flows of large flow rates. The proposed UTFF builds on the XII-developed sensor arrays and ultrasonic imaging algorithms, which is capable of achieving high accuracy (< 0.5%) through imaging the axial flow fields. Phase I work: In Phase I, XII will prototype an UTFF system and demonstrate its feasibility for measuring flow rate with an accuracy better than 2%. The focus of the Phase I program will be the overall UTFF system design and prototype, including system design, ultrasonic experiments, as well as UTFF prototype integration and performance evaluation. Commercial Applications: Knowing the speed of a moving fluid is essential in all cases where the fluid is used to transport material or energy. The proposed UTFF system, leveraging recent advances in the ultrasonic tomography and artificial neural network, is capable of achieving high accuracy (< 0.5%) through imaging the axial flow fields. We anticipate the UTFF system has many market applications in several industries such as the aero and space industry, power generators, food and beverage production and medical engineering. The total market will increase in the future because this flow process is fundamental to such a great part of the tasks we do or interact with our everyday lives. The proposed research provides excellent support for the improvement of the accuracy of flow measurements. Such a system will promote the theoretical development of fluid dynamics in academia, as well as to optimize process equipment design and provide a more accurate calculation of the volumetric flow rate in process control and custody transfer. Therefore, the market potential for the UTFF system is enormous. In the commercial sector, we anticipate that the resulting technology may have immediate applications in many food and beverage production and medical engineering. Academic institutes and universities for fluid dynamic research and modeling should also benefit from this new technology.