Method for ascertaining a physical parameter of a gas

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for ascertaining a physical parameter of a gas using a measuring transducer having a measuring tube for conveying the gas, wherein the measuring tube is excitable to execute bending oscillations of different modes and eigenfrequencies, the method includes: ascertaining the eigenfrequency of the f1-mode and f3-mode; ascertaining preliminary density values for the gas based on the eigenfrequencies of the f1-mode and f3-mode; ascertaining a value for the velocity of sound of the gas, and/or, dependent on the velocity of sound and the eigenfrequency of a mode, at least one correcting term and/or density error for the preliminary density value; and/or a correcting term for a preliminary mass flow value for determining a corrected mass flow measured value based on the first preliminary density value, the second preliminary density value, the eigenfrequencies of the f1-mode and f3-mode.

Claims

1. A method for ascertaining a physical parameter of a gas, the method comprising: ascertaining eigenfrequencies of a f1-mode and of a f3-mode of a measuring tube of a measuring transducer, the measuring tube embodied to convey a gas and including an inlet-side end section and an outlet-side end section, wherein the measuring transducer includes at least one inlet-side securement apparatus and at least one outlet-side securement apparatus, with which the measuring tube is secured in the inlet-side and outlet-side end sections, respectively, such that the measuring tube is excitable between the inlet-side and outlet-side securement apparatuses to execute bending oscillations of different modes with different eigenfrequencies, of which the f1-mode has no oscillation nodes between the securement apparatuses and of which the f3-mode has two oscillation nodes between the inlet-side and outlet-side securement apparatuses; ascertaining a first preliminary density value for the gas conveyed in the measuring tube based on the eigenfrequency of the f1-mode; ascertaining a second preliminary density value for the gas conveyed in the measuring tube based on the eigenfrequency of the f3-mode; ascertaining a value for a velocity of sound of the gas conveyed in the measuring tube; ascertaining at least one correcting term dependent on the velocity of sound and the eigenfrequency of either the f1-mode or the f3-mode, and/or a density error for the first or second preliminary density value ascertained based on the eigenfrequency of the respective mode, for determining a corrected density measured value; and ascertaining a correcting term for a preliminary mass flow value for determining a corrected mass flow measured value based on the first preliminary density value, the second preliminary density value, the eigenfrequency of the f1-mode and the eigenfrequency of the f3-mode; wherein the at least one correcting term has the following form based on the eigenfrequency of the respective mode: $K_i:=\left(1+\frac{r}{{\left(\frac{g.Math.c}{f_i}\right)}^2-b}\right),\text{.Math.}\mathrm{wherein}$ ${}_{\mathrm{corr}}\text{.Math.=}\frac{{}_i}{K_i},$ wherein r and g are gas independent constants, c is the velocity of sound of the gas, K.sub.i is the at least one correcting term, f is the eigenfrequency of the respective mode, .sub.corr is the corrected density measured value, and b is a scaling constant.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one correcting term is a function of a quotient of the velocity of sound of the gas and the eigenfrequency of the respective mode with which the first or second preliminary density measured value was ascertained.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the velocity of sound of the gas is determined by finding that sound velocity value for which a quotient of a first correcting term for the first preliminary density value divided by a second correcting term for the second preliminary density value equals a quotient of the first preliminary density value divided by the second preliminary density value.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein r/b<1.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein r/b<0.9.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein b=1.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein g is a proportionality factor between a resonant frequency of the gas and the velocity of sound of the gas dependent on a diameter of the measuring tube, wherein
f.sub.res=g.Math.c, wherein f.sub.res is the resonant frequency of the gas.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second preliminary density values are determined based on the eigenfrequencies f.sub.j of the respective modes using polynomials in 1/f.sub.i or (1/f.sub.i).sup.2, wherein coefficients of the polynomials are mode dependent.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the following holds for the density error of the first or second preliminary density value based on the eigenfrequency of the respective mode:
E.sub.pi:=K.sub.i1, wherein E.sub.pi is the density error, and wherein a mass flow error of the preliminary mass flow value is proportional to the density error of the first preliminary density value, such that
E.sub.m:=k.Math.E.sub.1, wherein E.sub.m is the mass flow error and k is the proportionality factor that amounts to not less than 1.5 and not more than 3, wherein for the correcting term for the preliminary mass flow value, the following holds:
K.sub.m:=1+E.sub.m, wherein K.sub.m is the correcting term for the preliminary mass flow value, and wherein the corrected mass flow measured value is ascertained as ${\stackrel{.}{m}}_{\mathrm{corr}}\text{.Math.=}\frac{{\stackrel{.}{m}}_v}{K_m},$ wherein {dot over (m)}.sub.corr is the corrected mass flow measured value and {dot over (m)}.sub.v is the preliminary mass flow value.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the proportionality factor amounts to not less than 1.9 and not more than 2.1.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising: determining a deviation between the first preliminary density value based on the eigenfrequency of the f1-mode and the second preliminary density value based on the eigenfrequency of the f3-mode; testing whether the deviation is greater than a reference value; and when the deviation is greater than the reference value, ascertaining and outputting the value for the velocity of sound.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein the reference value is selected such that the velocity of sound can be determined with a statistical error of no more than 10%.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the reference value is selected such that the velocity of sound can be determined with a statistical error of no more than 2%.

14. The method of claim 11, wherein the reference value amounts to not less than 0.2 kg/m.sup.3 and not more than 2 kg/m.sup.3.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the reference value amounts to not less than 0.4 kg/m.sup.3 and not more than 0.6 kg/m.sup.3.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) The invention will now be explained in greater detail based on the example of an embodiment presented in the drawing, the figures of which show as follows:

(2) FIG. 1 shows a flow diagram for a first example of an embodiment of a method of the invention;

(3) FIG. 2 shows a flow diagram for a detail of the first example of an embodiment of the method of the invention;

(4) FIG. 3 shows a graph of velocity of sound versus ratio of the density measured values;

(5) FIG. 4 shows a graph of density correction value versus velocity of sound;

(6) FIG. 5a shows a graph of sound velocity values ascertained with the method of the invention; and

(7) FIG. 5b shows a graph of density values ascertained with the method of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

(8) The example of an embodiment of a method 100 of the invention shown in FIG. 1 for determining a density value begins in a step 110 with the determining of the eigenfrequencies of the f1-bending oscillation mode and of the f3-bending oscillation mode. For this, the f1-bending oscillation mode and the f3-bending oscillation mode can especially be excited simultaneously. The sought eigenfrequencies can be ascertained by maximizing the ratio of oscillation amplitude to mode specific excitation power by varying the excitation frequencies.

(9) Based on the ascertained eigenfrequencies fi, in a step 120, preliminary density values .sub.1 and .sub.3 are determined as:

(10) ${}_i=c_{0i}+c_{1i}\frac{1}{f_i^2}+c_{2i}\frac{1}{f_i^4},$
wherein c.sub.0i, c.sub.1i, and c.sub.2i, are mode dependent coefficients.

(11) In a step 130, which is explained below in greater detail based on FIGS. 2 to 4, a correcting term for the density measurement is determined.

(12) Finally in a step 140, a corrected density value is determined by means of the correcting term.

(13) As shown in FIG. 2, step 130 for determining the correcting term includes, firstly, in a step 131, the calculating of the ratio V of the preliminary density values, thus, for example, by dividing the preliminary density values .sub.i and .sub.3 to give V:=.sub.1/.sub.3.

(14) Then, in a step 132, that velocity of sound c is determined, which at the measured eigenfrequencies of the bending oscillation modes leads to the calculated ratio V of the preliminary density values:

(15) $\frac{\left(1+\frac{r}{{\left(\frac{g.Math.c}{f_1}\right)}^2-b}\right)}{\left(1+\frac{r}{{\left(\frac{g.Math.c}{f_3}\right)}^2-b}\right)}=V$
wherein r is, for instance, 0.84, b=1 and g a measuring tube dependent proportionality factor between velocity of sound and resonant frequency, which can assume, for example, a value of 10/m.

(16) FIG. 3 shows velocity of sound as a function of the ratio V of the preliminary density values for two different value pairs of eigenfrequencies of the bending oscillation modes. The solid line is for f1=200 Hz and f3=900 Hz and the dashed line is for f1=210 Hz and f3=950 Hz. Thus, for example, at f1=200 Hz and f3=900 Hz, a velocity of sound of, for instance, c=360 m/s fulfills the condition, V=0.95, f1=200 Hz and f3=900 Hz.

(17) Based on the ascertained velocity of sound, then in step 133 of the method in FIG. 2 a mode specific correcting term K.sub.i is calculated according to:

(18) $K_i:=\left(1+\frac{r}{{\left(\frac{g.Math.c}{f_i}\right)}^2-1}\right).$

(19) The preliminary density value .sub.i is, finally, calculated in the step 140 of the method in FIG. 1 according to:

(20) ${}_{\mathrm{corr}}\text{.Math.=}\frac{{}_i}{K_i}$

(21) The preliminary density value .sub.i is thus divided by the correcting term K.sub.i in order to obtain the corrected density value .sub.corr.

(22) FIG. 4 shows the correcting term K.sub.i ascertained in step 133 for the f1 mode in the case of an eigenfrequency of f1=200 Hz. According to the velocity of sound of c=360 m/s ascertained in step 132, the preliminary density value based on the eigenfrequency of the f1-bending oscillation mode would be, for instance, 0.26% too large. The preliminary density value is thus divided by the correcting term 1.0026, in order to obtain the corrected density value.

(23) Shown in FIG. 5a are results of determining the velocity of sound of CO.sub.2 by means of the method of the invention in the case of different values for the static pressure. In the experiment, the eigenfrequency of the f1-mode decreased with increasing pressure, for instance, from 568 Hz to 559 Hz, while the eigenfrequency of the f3-mode fell, for instance, from 3066 Hz to 3005 Hz.

(24) Shown in FIG. 5b are, finally, results for determining the density of CO.sub.2 by means of the method of the invention in the case of different values for the static pressure, wherein the respective correcting terms for correcting the preliminary density values were ascertained based on the sound velocity values illustrated in FIG. 5a.

(25) Correcting terms for a preliminary mass flow measured value of a Coriolis mass flow measuring device can be determined from the correcting terms for the density by determining from the correcting term K.sub.i for the density, first of all, the density error E.sub.92 i:
E.sub.i:=K.sub.i1,

(26) The mass flow error E.sub.m for correcting a preliminary mass flow value amounts especially to twice the first preliminary density error E.sub.1, thus:
E.sub.m:=2.Math.E.sub.1.

(27) For a correcting term K.sub.m for the mass flow, the following holds:
K.sub.m:=1+E.sub.m,
wherein the corrected mass flow {dot over (m)}.sub.corr is ascertained as

(28) ${\stackrel{.}{m}}_{\mathrm{corr}}\text{.Math.=}\frac{{\stackrel{.}{m}}_v}{K_m},$
wherein {dot over (m)}.sub.v is a previous mass flow value, which results from the phase difference between the signals of two oscillation sensors arranged symmetrically on the measuring tube and a calibration factor.