A study of ultrasonic propagation for ultrasonic flow rate measurement

For the purpose of accurate flow measurement, an automatic three-dimensional (3D) sound field measurement system has been developed, and an experimental study has been conducted on ultrasonic properties. By using this system, ultrasonic sound pressure distributions and radiation angles in water have been measured. According to Snell’s law, the ultrasonic transmission properties can be obtained on the basis of incidence angle, acoustic impedance, basic frequency of ultrasound, and material and thickness of the metallic plate. However, this law cannot be applied to certain cases where an ultrasonic incident wave passes through a metallic plate and turns into a longitudinal wave, a shear wave and a Lamb wave. Consequently, the ultrasonic propagation paths have been investigated experimentally at various angles of incidence. From the experiments, it was confirmed that the ultrasonic beam paths change with incidence angles. Hence, the most suitable incidence angle has been determined from the result of measurements. Velocity measurements using an ultrasonic velocity profiler were made at various incidence angles. The accuracy of measuring flow rates changed with the incidence angles. The optimal incidence angle determined from 3D field measurements was found to yield the most accurate flow rates.