US 11,815,374 B2
Flow meter for a fluid with a pulsating flow
Ralf Huck, Großkrotzenburg (DE); and Jürgen Kiefer, Bruchsal (DE)
Assigned to SIEMENS AKTIENGESELLSCHAFT, Munich (DE)
Filed by Ralf Huck, Großkrotzenburg (DE); and Jürgen Kiefer, Bruchsal (DE)
Filed on Feb. 11, 2020, as Appl. No. 16/787,822.
Claims priority of application No. 10201920181.3 (DE), filed on Feb. 12, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2020/0256712 A1, Aug. 13, 2020
Int. Cl. G01F 15/02 (2006.01); G01F 1/20 (2006.01)
CPC G01F 1/20 (2013.01) [G01F 15/022 (2013.01)] 11 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A flow meter for measuring a fluid having an induced pulsating flow, the flow meter being configured to connect to a fluid line through which said fluid having the induced pulsating flow moves, the flow meter comprising:
a piezo transducer which senses, in a first phase, a flow rate of the fluid having the induced pulsating flow and which generates power which is supplied to the flow meter, said piezo transducer receiving and converting fluid pulses into electrical pulses in the first phase, and said flow meter being exclusively supplied with power generated by the piezo transducer;
an AC/DC converter circuit which cumulatively stores pulse energies of individual pulses of the electrical pulses in an energy store in the first phase;
a counter which simultaneously counts the electrical pulses generated by the piezo transducer in the first phase during a time interval;
of the counted electrical pulses in a second phase, said evaluation device only being active and supplied with stored energy from the energy store in the second phase, and said pulse parameter being indicative of an amount of fluid flowing in a fluid line, and which calculates a flow value of the fluid in the second phase based on (i) the electrical pulses counted within the time interval and (ii) the determined pulse parameter indicative of a flow rate of at least one of the electrical pulses, the second phase occurring subsequent to the first phase;
a communication device which sends the determined flow value, said communication device only being active with the evaluation device and supplied with the stored energy from the energy store in the second phase; and
a power supply device which exclusively supplies power to the flow meter based on the pulse energies of the electrical pulses cumulatively stored in the energy store.