means for generating an electrical pulse having a predetermined set of characteristics;
transmission means for converting said pulse to an ultrasonic waveform, simultaneously propagating the waveform at the object from at least two different directions, and for detecting respective reflected response waveforms from the object;
means for storing each response waveform and including a first converting means and a second converting means for respectively converting each response waveform from an analog signal to a digital signal, and memory means for storing the resultant digital contents of each converted waveform; and,
processing means for simultaneously, separately reconstructing each response waveform and determining from each separate reconstruction a value representing a first physical characteristic of the object, said processing means including means for mathematically combining the respective values derived from the separate reconstructions to produce another value representating a second physical characteristic of the object, and said processing means further including means for comparing the values for each of the physical characteristics with a predetermined set of limits for each characteristic to determine if the characteristic values fall within said limits, a first processing channel for processing one of the converted waveforms, and a second and separate processing channel for processing the other converted waveform, each processing channel having as a data input the converted waveform digital contents stored in one of the respective converting means each channel including gate means for performing a real time comparison of the response waveform with predetermined threshold criteria for the response waveform to determine if the converted response waveform is to be processed by the processing means and a processor to which an output from the gate means is supplied, the output from the gate means providing the processor the location in the memory means of data to be used in reconstructing the converted waveform to measure times of flight, each said processor employing a linear interpolation technique and a finite impulse response technique on converted waveform data to reconstruct the waveform and determine accurate time of flight values, and said processing means further including a third processor to which the results of the operations of each channel processor are supplied, said results including each of the two respective characteristic values represented.
Abstract: Apparatus (10) for measuring physical properties of a tube (T). A pulse generator (12) generates an electrical pulse having predetermined characteristics. Transducers (20a, 20b) convert the pulse to an ultrasonic waveform (W) and propagate the waveform at the tube from different directions. Resulting echoes (E1-E3) are converted into electrical response pulses. Another transducer (24a) propagates a similar waveform at a reference object (B) and converts an echo therefrom into a reference electrical response pulse which is combined with each of the other response pulses. Receivers (28a, 28b) receive the combined response pulses and convert them to digital data stored in a memory (32). A processor (36) reconstructs each combined waveform and determines from each reconstruction a value representing a physical characteristic of the tube. This involves performing a "Xreal time"C evaluation of the combined waveform to determine if it meets threshold criteria. If it does, a linear interpolation and finite impulse response on the digital data is performed to precisely measure time of flight (TOF). A processor (54) mathematically combines respective TOF values derived from a reconstruction to ascertain other physical characteristics of the tube. Each characteristic value is compared with a predetermined set of limits to determine if a measured value fall within the limits. Results of the comparison are displayed to an operator, and a permanent record of the values is made.
U.S. Class: (364/508) (364/507) (364/563) (364/550) (364/551.01)
IPC: (G01H 11/00)
US Patents Cited: 3554014 3848460 3930404 4254660 4437332 4541279 4665751 4706499 5063780 5287291 5349860 5351544
OG Section: Electrical
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