Title

Ultrasonic Measurement of the Geometric Parameters of Gaseous Voids in Low Gravity Fluid Containers

Author Info

A. T. Patten, Worcester Polytechnic Institute
William W. Durgin, Worcester Polytechnic InstituteFollow

Recommended Citation

Published in 28th Aerospace Sciences Meeting: Reno, Nevada, January 8, 1990, pages 1-8. AIAA 90-0510. Published with permission of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. Publisher website: http://www.aiaa.org/content.cfm?pageid=2.

NOTE: At the time of publication, the author William Durgin was not yet affiliated with Cal Poly.

Abstract

A demonstration system for the ultrasonic gauging of fluids in low-gravity has been designed and tested. For purposes of simplification, it was assumed that vapor within a liquid container in low-gravity would form a spherical bubble which would float freely in the container. The project was designed to show that ultrasonic techniques could be used to determine the geometry of the resulting sphere given a worst-case transducer arrangement. The motivation was to simplify transducer mounting requirements so that propellant or other storage vessels could be fitted with ultrasonic gauging systems with a single or perhaps a few transducer penetrations. Data was collected from a planar array of transducers. The high error expected due to the low triangulation was reduced by maximizing the amount of data collected. This was accomplished using the transducers in both pulse/echo and pitch/catch operational modes.

Disciplines

Mechanical Engineering