Patent application approved for Yoder dual tube flowmeter
Flow Research has announced that the United States Patent Office has approved the application by founder Jesse Yoder of a new dual tube flowmeter. This flowmeter is designed to provide superior and more accurate measurement of flows in large pipes at a reduced cost. The approved patent application applies to seven different flow technologies, including coriolis, magnetic, ultrasonic, vortex, thermal, differential pressure, and turbine.
The new Yoder dual tube meter contains two equally sized round tubes placed within a meter body. A sensor within each tube computes the flow within the tube. The total flow through the pipe is then computed from the results of the flow measurement within the two tubes, plus a calculation based on testing. The design works especially well in large pipes, according to the company.
The Yoder dual tube meter uses smaller, less expensive dual sensors to measure flow more economically than larger sensors that have to cover the entire pipe. It is also potentially more accurate because, unlike insertion flowmeters that measure flow at a single point, it makes two flow measurements and computes flowrate for each measurement.
According to Jesse Yoder, the inventor of the 'flowtube' meter:
'The flowtube meter represents a major breakthrough in flow measurement technology for measuring flow through large pipes. Not only does it promise higher accuracy and lower cost, it also opens up the possibility of mixing different flow technologies within a single meter. This is not a completely new concept, but it is one that has not been adequately explored or implemented by flowmeter suppliers. It is easy to assume the idea that each flowmeter has to use only one sensor type (e.g. coriolis, ultrasonic, etc.), while much can potentially be gained from using multiple technologies within a single meter. This is the path already taken by inventors of multiphase meters. Measuring flow through a pipe by measuring the flow through dual tubes inserted into the pipe is itself a revolutionary idea, and has the potential to change the flowmeter landscape across many flow technologies.'
The geometry underlying the flowtube meter is explained in Chapter Seven of Yoder's new book, The Tao of Measurement, which was published in March 2015 by the International Society of Automation (ISA). This chapter describes traditional Euclidean geometry, and proposes the round inch as a substitute for the square inch as a fundamental unit of geometric measurement. The design of the flowtube meter follows logically from the use of the round inch as a unit of measurement for circular area. However, the utility of the flowtube meter does not depend on circular geometry, and the geometry of the flowtube meter is completely consistent with traditional Euclidean geometry.
