Work

Beam Drift Mitigation and Wide-Range Measurement in a Miniaturized Ultrasonic Gas Flowmeter

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: To mitigate acoustic beam drift, which degrades the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and limits the measurement range in ultrasonic gas flowmeters (USFMs), we present a miniaturized transit-time USFM that integrates a single piezoelectric micromachined ultrasonic transducer (PMUT) with a non-axisymmetric conical cavity. This design increases acoustic transmission gain and produces anisotropic directivity across orthogonal radiation planes, thereby broadening acoustic coverage along the flow direction and reducing beam steering. With an optimized cavity angle combination of (50°, 70°), the system achieves a 7.4 dB transmission gain and a half-power beamwidth (HPBW) of 29.1°. Experimental validation demonstrates a sound pressure attenuation of only 0.72 dB at 18.74 m/s. Within the 0.06–12 m3/h flow range, the USFM exhibits indication errors of ±2% (<1 m3/h) and ±1.5% (≥1 m3/h), with repeatability below 0.5%. The performance meets the Class 1.5 accuracy standard specified in CJ/T 477-2015, offering an innovative solution for wide-range miniaturized gas flow measurement.

Source: Micromachines

DOI: 10.3390/mi17020254

Authors: Shanfeng Hou, Xueying Xiu, Chengguang Liu, Haochen Lyu, Songsong Zhang

Institutions: Shanghai University, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey

Language: English

Topic: Flow Measurement and Analysis

Subfield: Mechanics of Materials

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $2,534

Funder: Science and Technology Innovation Plan Of Shanghai Science and Technology Commission