An ultrasonic gas flow meter based on FPGA and DSP consists of ultrasonic gas transducers and sensor components, transmitting/receiving signal channel switch circuits, a driving signal generation and amplification circuit, an echo signal conditioning and collection circuit, a time sequential controlling and signal processing circuit, a man-machine interface, a serial communication module and a power management module, propagation time of ultrasonic echo waves is calculated by adopting a variable ratio threshold and zero-crossing detection method of tracking maximum peak of the echo signal to obtain gas flow rates.

This disclosure relates generally to detection of concentration of micro and nano particles in a fluid environment. An acoustic transmitter array is selective coated with polymer and receiver array is deployed at a random location in a conduit. The acoustic transmitter array on the conduit is insonified at a predetermined frequency to obtain a plurality of reflected signals. A plurality of key features pertinent to the conduit are extracted from the plurality of reflected signals to obtain a plurality of acoustic signals. A correlation model is configured by inputting, at least one feature associated with the pre-processed acoustic signals. A known concentrations of nano and micro particles are trained with an artificial neural network algorithm and calibrated with ground truth data. The location of the transmitter array and receiver array and the correlation model are finalized for detecting concentration of the particular micro and nano particles in the fluid environment.

Described are an apparatus, computer program product, and associated methods for shaped waveform acoustic interrogation of substances and materials to determine one or more properties of the materials or substances. In some embodiments, a shaped waveform is formed by summing two or more different waveforms and an acoustic wave is generated according to the shaped waveform. The acoustic wave is transmitted by one or more transmitting transducers through the substance or material and received by one or more receiving transducers. The shaped waveform acoustic wave can have a duration or a period that is less than about 20 μs and can comprise predetermined frequency content. Characteristics of the shaped waveform acoustic wave, as received at the receiving transducer(s), including characteristics such as amplitude, frequency, time of flight, etc., can be associated with said one or more properties of the substance or material to provide for real-time monitoring of these properties.

Methods and devices for detecting a defect in a rail of a railway track, include at least two sensors selected from among magneto-acoustic and/or piezoelectric and/or magnetostrictive transducers; each sensor being associated with a timestamping circuit of a GNSS satellite positioning system; a measuring circuit for measuring, by way of the sensors, the acousto-elastic waves propagating in the rail, the wave or signal measurements being timestamped. Some developments describe notably active and passive modes; the use of train crossings; the emission of waves; the determination of the existence and then of the position and finally the characterization of the defect, where applicable; preferred placements for installing the sensors; the use of inter-correlation, passive inverse filter or correlation of coda of correlation methods; the use of mobile robots and/or drones; the use of artificial noise sources.

A spot-welding electrode assembly includes an electrode, an electrode cap at an outer end of the electrode, and a plurality of transducer elements positioned inward of the electrode cap. The transducer elements may be micro-elements. A method for monitoring a weld formed by a spot-welder includes passing current from an electrode assembly through a stack-up, transmitting an ultrasonic wave from each of a plurality of sources in the electrode assembly to a plurality of points in the stack-up, and monitoring the ultrasonic waves to monitor the weld formation.

A method and device for configuring a clamp-on ultrasonic measuring device for flow measurement in pipelines, the clamp-on ultrasonic measuring device comprising at least two ultrasound transducers for flow measurement which face one another along the pipeline in a plane or diagonally. The autonomous acquisition and detection of the properties of the pipeline is carried out by means of a determined resistance value on the basis of the dimension of the pipeline and/or a circumferential measurement of the pipeline and/or a determined ultrasound value.

Systems and techniques for measuring process characteristics including electrolyte distribution in a battery cell. A non-destructive method for analyzing a battery cell includes determining acoustic features at two or more locations of the battery cell, the acoustic features based on one or more of acoustic signals travelling through at least one or more portions of the battery cell during one or more points in time or responses to the acoustic signals obtained during one or more points in time, wherein the one or more points in time correspond to one or more stages of electrolyte distribution in the battery cell. One or more characteristics of the battery cell are determined based on the acoustic features at the two or more locations of the battery cell.

A sensor includes a first element part having a first member and a first element. The first member is a acoustic tubular waveguide and extends along a first direction. The acoustic tubular waveguide includes a first opening and a second opening. A direction from the second opening toward the first opening is along the first direction. The first element includes a vibratile first membrane, and a first supporter supporting the first membrane. The second opening is between the first opening and the first membrane in the first direction. The sensor may be a Piezoelectric Micro electro mechanical systems Ultrasonic Transducer and may be used for inspecting paper and/or resin including detecting thickness of a fed through banknote and/or the presence of foreign matter thereon such as tape. An optical element may alternatively measure the vibration of a membrane from acoustic through transmission instead of an acoustic receiver.

A respiratory flow therapy apparatus including a sensor module can measure a flow rate of gases or gases concentration provided to a patient. The sensor module can be located after a blower and/or mixer. The sensor module can include at least an ultrasonic transmitter, a receiver, a temperature sensor, a pressure sensor, a humidity sensor and/or a flow rate sensor. The receivers can be immersed in the gases flow path. The receivers can cancel delays in the transmitters and improve accuracy of measurements of characteristics of the gases flow. The receivers can allow for detection of a fault condition in a blower motor of the apparatus.

An energy storage system can comprise a stack of multiple battery modules, a plurality of ultrasound emitter transducers, a plurality of ultrasound receiving transducers, one or more excitation modules, one or more capture modules, and an ultrasound battery management system. Each ultrasound emitter transducer and each ultrasound receiving transducer can be acoustically coupled to a surface of a respective one of the battery modules. The excitation module(s) can be electrically interfaced with the plurality of ultrasound emitter transducers, and the capture module(s) can be electrically interface with the plurality of ultrasound receiving transducers. The ultrasound battery management system controller can be configured to initiate battery module ultrasound interrogation sequences.