Patent Grant
7421911
The present invention relates generally to air sampling and, more particularly, to systems for measuring air characteristics with multipoint air sampling systems,
As is known in the art, there are various applications where air is transported through a tube or pipe for sampling or measurement purposes. For example, an air quality or an environmental air parameter measurement system may have remotely located sensors instead of at the sensed environment. In addition, a sensor or a single set of multiple sensors may be used to sense a plurality of locations creating a measurement system known as a multi-location or a multipoint air sampling system. For one class of these systems, multiple tubes may be used to bring air samples from multiple locations to a centralized sensor(s). Centrally located air switches and/or solenoid valves may be used in this approach to sequentially switch the air from these locations through the different tubes to the sensor to measure the air from the multiple remote locations. These octopus-like systems sometimes known as star-configured or home run systems use considerable amounts of tubing. An example of such a star-configured system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,241,950, which is incorporated herein by reference. Other types of systems known to the art of air monitoring include those that are designed to monitor refrigerants and other toxic gases, which also are star-configured systems. Additionally, these types of star-configured systems have been used to monitor particulates in multiple areas such as clean room areas with a single particle counter. Generally, these types of systems, however, have historically not been applied to general air quality measurement applications, even though they could easily be adapted to do so.
Another multipoint sampling system known as a networked air sampling system uses a central ‘backbone’ tube with branches extending to various locations forming a bus-configured or tree like approach similar to the configuration of a data network. Air solenoids are typically remotely located proximate to the multiple sampling locations. Networked air sampling systems can also include remote and/or multiple-location air sampling through a tube or pipe for sampling locations in a building, outdoor air or ambient sampling, and sampling in smokestacks and exhaust air stacks. An exemplary networked air sampling system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,125,710, which is incorporated herein by reference.
The multipoint sampling systems which have been described may be applied to monitor a wide range of locations throughout a building, including any kinds of rooms, hallways, lobbies, interstitial spaces, penthouses, outdoor locations, and any number of locations within ductwork, plenums, and air handlers.
One characteristic of these multipoint sampling systems is that some parameters such as temperature in particular, but some other parameters as well such as ozone can not always be effectively measured from a remote location with a shared sensor. Furthermore, other parameters may be accurately measured at a remote location with a shared sensor but, for various reasons such as the need for more rapid sampling, may be preferred to be sensed locally at one or more of the sensed locations. In these situations, separate sensors and either distinct signal wires or a digital data communications network with cable, optical fiber or wireless links can be used to connect remote sensors such as temperature sensors to either the networked sampling system or possibly a building management system.
When these multipoint sampling systems are used to sample ductwork, plenums, air handlers or any other applications where flowing air in a partially contained area such as a duct or pipe is to be sampled and measured with a remote sensor, a tube or hollow duct probe must be inserted into the duct or partially contained space to withdraw a sample. Additionally however, a separate temperature or other parameter sensing probe or probes are needed to make whatever local sensor measurements are desired from these ducts or partially enclosed areas. The use of multiple separate probes for both sensing and drawing air samples leads to extra costs as well as more duct penetrations that unfavorably increase the installation expense of the multipoint sampling system.
As such this invention provides solutions to enable multipoint air monitoring systems to cost effectively and reliably monitor air parameters both locally and remotely within many of the partially confined locations within a building, and is especially suitable but not limited to applications involving monitoring air parameters within ductwork, plenums, and air handlers.
It is therefore a primary object of this invention to provide an integrated duct probe assembly system that enables multipoint sampling systems to measure air parameters in partially confined locations such as ductwork, plenums, and air handlers.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a duct probe assembly that enables cost effective measurement of air parameters in partially confined locations with both remote and local sensors with a minimum number of duct penetrations.
This invention details apparatus and methods for a unique integrated duct probe assembly system that enables multipoint sampling systems to cost effectively measure air parameters in partially confined locations such as ductwork, plenums, and air handlers with both remote and local sensors with a minimum of duct penetrations.
One preferred embodiment of the invention comprises an air parameter sensor, such as a solid duct temperature probe known as a thermowell, that is generally constructed with a hollow internal space or sampling tube that serves as a means to draw a sample from the flowing air stream or air space being sampled by a multipoint sampling system. Additional embodiments of this invention incorporate one or more sensors within the probe assembly for detecting air parameters other than temperature. These one or more alternate sensors may either be incorporated with the probe assembly in addition to a temperature sensor, or the probe assembly may include one or more alternate sensors and not include a temperature sensor. The air parameter sensors and optional electronics incorporated with the duct probe assembly may either be attached to the portion of the duct probe's air sampling tube that is inserted into the duct, or one or more air parameter sensors may be housed in an enclosure outside the duct or plenum. Both the sampling tube and the air parameter sensor may be connected to the multipoint sampling system or the sampling tube may be connected to the sampling system while one or more of the one or more air parameter sensor(s) (optionally including temperature) are connected to either the multipoint sampling system or a building management system (or equivalently some other data monitoring or control system) or both.
More specifically, the preferred embodiment of the probe assembly system of the invention, for extracting an air sample from a flowing air stream, comprises: a first tube which is at least partially immersed in the flowing air stream and is adapted to enable the air sample to pass through the first tube to a second tube that is in communication with a multipoint sampling system; and at least one sensor assembly that is adapted to sense characteristics of the air sample and is attached to the first tube to sense at least one characteristic of the flowing air stream, wherein the first tube may extract the air sample isokinetically, and wherein the first tube may be adapted to extract the air sample to compensate for any effects of an anisokinetic sampling of the flowing air steam.
The sensor preferably comprises a temperature sensor, wherein the temperature sensor is housed within a thermowell that is fixed to the first tube, wherein the thermowell surrounds at least a portion of the first tube. The temperature sensor may comprise a sensing element that extends along at least half of the portion of the length of the first tube that is immersed in the flowing air stream.
One or more of the sensors may also comprise a variety of sensors including, but not limited to an ozone sensor and/or a humidity sensor.
The probe assembly of the invention is adapted to sense a flowing air stream that is located inside of a building's air handling unit, wherein the flowing air stream may be located inside a mixed air plenum of the building's air handling unit such as inside a portion of a duct system of a building's HVAC system. The first tube preferably samples the flowing air stream from a plurality of sampling holes, wherein the sampling holes in the first tube are preferably located at positions along at least a portion of a length of the first tube, and wherein each air sample drawn from a given sampling hole has a volume that is approximately equal to the volume of a cross section of a predefined space though which the flowing air stream is moving. At least one of the sensors may comprise sensor elements that are located in close proximity to at least two of the sampling holes. The probe assembly may comprise a plurality of the first tubes that each comprise at least one sampling hole that samples the flowing air stream, wherein the sampling holes in the plurality of first tubes are located at positions within the flowing air stream so that each air sample drawn from a given sampling hole has a volume that is approximately equal to the volume of a cross section of a predefined space though which the flowing air stream is moving.
At least one of the sensors of the probe assembly of the invention preferably generates a signal that is in direct communication with the multipoint sampling system, wherein at least one of the sensors generates a signal that is in direct communication with a building management system.
The probe assembly system of the invention may further comprise a probe housing, wherein at least one of the sensors is in direct communication with a signal conditioning circuit that is located within the probe housing, and the signal conditioning circuit is in direct communication with the multipoint sampling system and/or a building management system.
As noted, the sampling tube may have multiple sampling holes to obtain a better average of the duct conditions in multiple locations. Similarly the invention may also include sampling probes with multiple sensors at different locations on the duct probe to get a better average sensor measurement. Alternatively, an averaging measurement device such as a temperature sensing element consisting of a long sensing element wire can be wrapped around or run along at least a part of the length of the sampling tube to obtain a better average measurement of the airflow throughout the duct.
Another preferred embodiment of the invention, adapted for larger sized areas or ducts that need to be measured, comprises multiple duct probes that are utilized to obtain a two dimensional measurement of the duct or sensed area versus a measurement in only one dimension.
For those duct probes with multiple sampling holes and or multiple probes, the location of the sampling holes is beneficially located to produce sampling of roughly equal areas of the duct or cross section of the area being sensed.
The preferred method of the invention for using a probe assembly for extracting an air sample from a flowing air stream, generally comprises the steps of: providing a probe assembly comprising, a first tube which is at least partially immersed in the flowing air stream through which the air sample passes and is transferred to a second tube that is in communication with a multipoint sampling system; and at least one sensor assembly that is attached to the first tube and that is adapted to sense at least one characteristic of the flowing air stream; and sensing at least one characteristic of the flowing air stream, wherein the first tube may extract the air sample isokinetically and to at least partially compensate for any effects of an anisokinetic sampling of the flowing air steam.
At least one of the sensors preferably comprises a temperature sensor wherein the temperature sensor is contained within a thermowell that is attached to the first tube, wherein the thermowell surrounds the first tube, and/or wherein the temperature sensor has a sensing element that extends along at least half of the portion of the length of the first tube that is immersed in the flowing air stream. The flowing air stream may be located inside of a building's air handling unit such as a mixed air plenum of the building's air handling unit and/or inside a portion of a duct system of a building's HVAC system.
The first tube used in the method preferably samples the flowing air stream from a plurality of sampling holes, wherein the sampling holes in the first tube are located at positions along at least a portion of the first tube within the flowing air stream so that each air sample drawn from a given sampling hole has a volume that is approximately equal to the volume of a cross section of a predefined space through which the flowing air stream is moving. The probe assembly may further comprise a plurality of first tubes wherein each of the first tubes comprises at least one sampling hole that is adapted to sample the flowing air stream, wherein at least one of the sensors comprises sensor elements that are located in close proximity to at least two of the sampling holes. The sampling holes of the first tubes may be located at positions along at least a portion of the first tube within the flowing air stream so that each air sample drawn from a given sampling hole has a volume that is approximately equal to the volume of a cross section of a predefined space though which the flowing air stream is moving.
At least one of the sensors preferably generates a signal that is in direct communication with a building management system. Still further, at least one of the sensors is preferably in direct communication with a signal conditioning circuit that is housed within the probe assembly, and wherein the signal conditioning circuit is in direct communication with a building management system.
As noted, the temperature sensor may be contained within a thermowell that is attached to the first tube, wherein the thermowell surrounds the first tube and wherein the temperature sensor may have a sensing element that extends along at least half of the portion of the length of the first tube that is immersed in the flowing air stream.
Other objects, features and advantages will occur to those skilled in the art from the following description of the preferred embodiments and the accompanying drawings in which:
The invention features a multipoint air sampling system. A preferred embodiment of the system features a probe assembly 400, which is generally shown and referred to in
A typical ventilation system for a building involves one or more air handling units and associated fan systems which, together, perform many critical HVAC functions including: maintaining building pressurization, providing sufficient amounts of fresh air to occupants, controlling moisture levels within the building, controlling airborne dust or particulate levels, and the control of building air temperature.
In instances where system 100 serves multiple zones, supply air 114 is typically preconditioned to a predetermined temperature of 55 degrees Fahrenheit. A reheat coil is applied within the distribution ductwork for each zone in which a dedicated thermostat or controller is placed to separately maintain zone temperatures. In such an arrangement, duct temperature probe 117 is used to monitor the supply air 114 temperature so that AHU controller 116 can maintain the temperature to 55 degrees Fahrenheit or any other suitable set point by regulating heating coil 112 and cooling coil 113.
HVAC systems typically utilize duct probe sensors having a thermal well construction, in which the sensor is sealed or embedded within a thermally conductive tube (that is typically metal) and in practice is immersed in the airflow stream. The thermally conductive tube tends to have an averaging affect on the temperature sensed by the embedded sensor, which is commonly an electrically resistive sensor, such as a thermistor or a resistance temperature detector (RTD).
Although the typical design of a thermowell-style duct air temperature sensor provides a level of averaging to the temperature measurement, a common problem with such measurements is that air temperatures can vary significantly across a cross section of ductwork. This is usually not a big problem with supply air 114, which is usually uniform, but it can be a problem with mixed air 109. Mixed air 109 is the result of the outside air (107) and recirculated air 105 flow streams converging, and it is often the case that these flow streams are at two very different temperatures. For example, recirculated air 105 is a portion of the return air 101 that is removed from a zone or zones that could be at 68 degrees Fahrenheit and, on a winter day this air 105 could be mixed with outside air 107 that is at a temperature of 40 degrees Fahrenheit. The actual resultant mixed air average temperature is dependant on the volume flow rate of the outside air 107 relative to the amount of recirculated air. The air temperature, in such instances, will vary greatly over the cross section of the ductwork located immediately upstream from filter 110 due to incomplete mixing.
It is often desirable to measure mixed air temperature for a variety of reasons including economizer control function and airflow measurement functions. In addition, there are many other applications involving temperature measurement in which duct temperature varies along the duct cross section. To accomplish this, duct averaging temperature sensor 118 is used. Generally, a duct averaging temperature sensor is composed of an element, like a platinum wire, or a number of elements that are made to span the cross section of the duct from which a measurement is to be made. Some examples of these types of sensors are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,592,254 and 4,547,079.
In addition to normal room monitoring applications, the multipoint air sampling system of this invention may be used to monitor locations in systems such as 100, or in general, any system involving air flow delivery including any type of air handling system topology known to those skilled in the art. Some of these additional air handling topologies include but are not limited to: any type of single pass 100% outside air system, dual duct systems, dedicated outside air systems, fan coil systems, and virtually any system involving air delivery. These applications include air flow delivery to any kind of environment including but not limited to: locations throughout office or commercial buildings, labs, biochemistry facilities, hospital environments, operating rooms, patient rooms, pharmaceutical environments, aseptic processing areas, industrial environments, bio-safety facilities, vivariums, clean rooms, and even residential environments. The application of a multipoint air sampling system enables sensing capabilities for a wide variety of parameters limited only by the type of shared sensors that can be used, which can be valuable for purposes of a variety of control strategies, air quality monitoring, or system performance monitoring purposes. For example, some of these sensing capabilities include but are not limited to sensing for CO2, CO, NOx, VOC's, particulate matter (such as PM2.5, PM10, and even microfine particles), moisture (dew point temperature), NH3, mold spores, chemical or biological terrorist threat materials, radon gas, and even differential pressure. However, despite the capabilities that the shared sensors in a multipoint air sampling system can provide, there are some parameters, such as temperature, and highly reactive gases such as ozone, which may not transport well, based on the transport media and therefore, may not be practical to sense with a remote sensor. Nevertheless, there are many cases where it will be advantageous for a multipoint air sampling system to incorporate these parameters along with the data it generates from its shared sensor(s), particularly in cases where a third parameter is based on a calculation involving a first hard to transport parameter, such as temperature, and a second parameter measured by a shared sensor, such as dew point temperature. For example, if a multipoint air sampling system incorporates a hygrometer (measuring dew point temperature) as a shared sensor along with a temperature sensor at the sampling point, a combined measurement of enthalpy, RH, or other psychometric properties can be computed.
As shown in 200, two physically separate probes, a sensor probe 201 and an air sampling probe 202, are attached to the duct 210 in order to obtain the combined measurement of temperature as well as other parameter(s) from the airflow stream 211. The other parameters are based upon the types of shared sensors 206 used within multipoint sampler 203. For example, the shared sensors could include CO2, CO, a hygrometer, and other sensors. Multipoint air sampler 203 could be a star-configured multipoint air sampling system like that described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,241,950, it could be a multipoint air sampling like that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,292,280, it could be a refrigerant and toxic gas monitor adapted for this purpose such as the Vulcain Inc. multipoint sample draw gas monitor model number VASQN8X, it could be a multiplexed particle counter such as the Universal Manifold System and Controller as made by Lighthouse Worldwide Solutions, Inc. coupled with one of their particle counters such as their model number Solair 3100 portable laser based particle counter or an obscuration based particle sensor, or it could be a networked air sampling system such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,125,710.
As shown in
The sensor probe 201 in
In more typical applications the temperature-sensing element (such as an RTD or thermistor, for example) is permanently affixed within a probe housing which is usually a metal tube that is open on one end and closed at the other. There are many manufacturers of such probes, such as Dwyer Instruments, Precon Inc., Kele Inc., Tempco Controls, Honeywell International, and Pyromation Inc., to name a few. For example, sensor probe 201 could be an assembly like the HD30K, by Kele, Inc., which has options for both a temperature sensor and an RH sensor. The signal outputs of Sensor probe 201 with its one or more environmental sensors are connected to the multipoint sampling system 203 through electrical cable 209. This connection can be either an analog signal connection, or may be a digital signal on dedicated wires or addressed digital data information transferred on a networked or dedicated data communications cable. In some cases the cable 209 may go directly to a building management system 220, which typically provide some form of at least monitoring and or control of at least some portion of the building's heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, or equivalently to another building data monitoring or control system, either instead of to the multipoint sampling system or in addition to the multipoint sampling system.
The temperature probe assembly 300 provides a signal output from sensor element 305 via conductors 304, which may be connected locally to a signal conditioning circuit or 304 may be routed to a remote monitoring and signal-conditioning device. For example conductors 304 could be routed to a unitary controller that is monitoring and possibly controlling the supply air 114 within a system 100.
Using the two probes 201 and 202 as shown in 200 poses several problems from an installation standpoint because two penetrations of duct 210 are required to support 201 and 202, and the time and cost of the labor associated with both making the penetrations (drilling holes) and mounting the two probes 201 and 202 is undesirable. Similar to this, the cost of having two probe assemblies 201 and 202 is undesirable.
In addition, accuracy issues can result when measuring a parameter that requires both a measured value from sensor probe 201 and a sensed parameter from a shared sensor 206 from an air sample taken through probe 202, if the sensed parameter from 201 is not the same at the probe location 202 as it is at the location of 201. For example, as described in U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/660,245, if a shared sensor 206 is a hygrometer measuring dew point temperature from an air sample taken through 202, specific psychrometric properties of the air flow stream 211 can be determined such as enthalpy, relative humidity, and humidity ratio. The problem with doing this using a probe 202 and a separate probe 201 for temperature measurement is that air temperature can easily vary by a few degrees along short distances along either the length or the cross section of an airflow stream 211, and a few degrees of error in a temperature measurement when making psychrometric calculations can significantly affect the accuracy of the calculation, depending on the moisture content of the air sample.
Also, in practice it can be very difficult to physically locate two probes 201 and 202 at the same location on a duct 210 as building construction and equipment layout often compete with the space required for running ductwork. What is needed is a more compact alternative to the space required for mounting and making connections to probes 201 and 202.
Hollow tube 401 can be of any practical diameter and length depending on the physical limitation of the duct 408 onto which it is mounted. The cross section of the tube 401 can be round, square, or any shape, however, it is generally easiest to provide a round penetration (hole) in the duct 408 to receive tube 401, so it is beneficial that 401 be round, thus simplifying installation and making it easier to seal the tube 401 to a duct 408.
In practice, it is also advantageous to minimize the outer diameter of hollow tube 401 to a practical diameter which will require a small mounting hole in relation to the diameter of the duct 408 on which 400 is to mount.
The sensor element(s) 402 may be connected directly to the multipoint sampling system 450 through line 406 which is a cable containing electrical connections and the sensor's analog, digital, or addressed network communications data. Alternatively, the sensor elements may be connected to optional signal processing electronics 404 through cable 403. The optional electronics 404, which may provide signal conditioning and other interface functions to sensor element(s) 402, are then connected to the sampling system 450 through cable 406. Alternatively the cable 406 may connect the sensor element(s) 402 or optional electronics 404 to a building management system or any environmental data monitoring or control system 460 either instead of the multipoint sampling system 450 or in addition to 450.
Although it is generally advantageous to provide electrical connections 406 to convey information from sensor element 402 to multipoint sampling system 450, in one embodiment, connection 406 is a wireless connection. This is useful, for example, in applications where it is necessary to locate 401/402 in an intrinsically safe environment, or in other applications where it is undesirable (whether it be because of safety, logistics, or cost reasons) to connect wires between the duct probe assembly and multipoint sampling system 450 and/or building management system 600. This may be carried out by embedding a wireless transmitter in sensor element 402 or, preferably, within optional electronics 404. This transmitter could be part of a wireless network that multipoint sampling system 450 and/or building management system 460 are also connected to, or this could be a point-to-point wireless connection.
Additionally even though the pictorial of hollow tube 401 in
If instead, the air velocity through the hollow tube 401 is fixed or unrelated to the velocity of the flowing air stream 409, then the effects of this type of anisokinetic sampling can generate a higher or possibly lower representation of the concentration of the larger sized particles in the air flow stream 409. As a result a preferred embodiment has the hollow tube 401 bent into the direction of the airflow stream 401 at a 30 to 45 degree angle to partially compensate for the effects of anisokinetic sampling when the airflow 409 velocity is higher than the sample flow velocity through the hollow tube 401. Alternatively, the least impact of anisokinetic sampling is seen for higher or lower airflow 409 velocities when the hollow tube is pointed directly into the air flow stream 409. Finally, if it is desired to reduce or filter out larger particles such as dust, the hollow tube 401 may be placed at right angles to the airflow stream 409 to enhance the effects of anisokinetic sampling or even to point the hollow probe opening 180 degrees away from the airflow stream 409 altogether.
The sensor element 402 may be a combination of one or more sensors that are either directly or indirectly mounted to tube 401. For example, sensor(s) 402 could include but is not limited to one or more of an ozone sensor, temperature sensor, or relative humidity (RH) sensor mounted on the outer surface of the hollow tube 401, and thus directly exposed to the air flow stream as shown in
As shown in
If a temperature sensor is to be employed as part or all of sensor element 402 or sensor element 502 it may consist of any type of temperature sensing element such as platinum or nickel RTD (in wire or other form), a thermistor, a thermocouple, or a solid state sensor. A preferred embodiment would employ a temperature sensing wire element that could be wrapped in a spiral fashion around the hollow tube 401 over a selected portion of, or over most of the length of the hollow tube 401 to get a good average temperature measurement in the duct. If the hollow tube is flexible or bendable it is advantageous for the sensing element 402 or 502 to bend to accommodate the movement of the hollow tube 401.
Another preferred embodiment is shown in
The connection of the tube 401 to the duct could be from a hole at the end of the thermowell, or the tube may project out of the thermowell as shown in
The temperature element 603 or some other air parameter-sensing element is then located at a location between the inner tube 401 and the outer tube 601. If it is a temperature sensing element it would be beneficial to also increase the conductivity of the thermal connection between the thermal sensing element 603 and the outer tube 601 using some type of a high thermal conductivity filler 602, For this purpose thermally conductive filler 602 is usually, a two part epoxy that may be metal filled. This filler 602 also maximizes sensor response time and protects the sensor element from moisture.
The temperature-sensing element 603 may be any type of temperature sensing element such as platinum or nickel RTD (in wire or other form), a thermistor, a thermocouple, or a solid-state sensor. Also, element 603 can be a discrete sensor element using only a small portion of the overall length of tube 601, or it can span a large fraction of the entire length of 601, but typically would not exceed the length of 601. A beneficial implementation uses a temperature sensing element that is in wire form that can run up or down the length of the outer tube 601 or beneficially it can be wrapped in a spiral around the inner tube 401 or equivalently around the inside of the outer tube 601 to create an average sensing of the temperature along the entire length of the outer tube 601. The probe can be mounted to the duct through a mounting bracket 410 which can be secured to the duct with one or several sheet metal screws that are driven through mounting bracket 410 into the wall of duct 408 in order to secure the duct probe 600 in place on the duct. To facilitate installation the length of the probe 600 that inserts into the duct may be flexible or bendable so that it can be appropriately positioned for best results.
Additionally, it should be clear to those skilled with air distribution systems that assembly 600 can be applied to ducts of any shape and sizes, the most common shapes being round, rectangular, oval, and square.
Another variation of the air sampling duct probe comprises a sampling tube that is perforated with holes along its length to provide a sampling of many areas of the duct vs. just one location to get a better averaging of the gas or particle levels across or though a cross-section of the duct. This is particularly important in the mixed air plenum of an air-handling unit although it can be important in other applications where there is a non-uniform distribution of contaminants in the air across the duct profile. An example of this type of duct probe 700 is shown in
A plurality of perforated sampling holes 705 are located in the outer tube 704 that allow the air from the airflow stream 409 to enter the sampling tube 704 at multiple locations in the duct or sensed area. These holes of which five happen to be shown in
If it is instead desired to filter out or reduce the number of large sized particles of approximately 5 microns or higher, for example to reduce dust pickup from the sample airflow, the sampling holes should be located at a right angle to the airflow stream 409 or any radial direction beyond 90 degrees to a point completely opposite of the flow direction on the lee side of the probe.
Generally for larger size ducts such as those over 12 square feet in cross section, rather than use a single probe 704 traversing the duct with a plurality of sampling holes 705 as shown in
In addition to using a thermowell and a temperature sensing element in the duct probe, other sensing approaches may also be employed. For example, discrete sensing elements such as thermistors for temperature, solid state humidity sensing elements for humidity, or any other discrete sensor element may be located next to each of the sampling holes 705 in
The spacing of the sampling holes 705 and the sensor element locations 703 where discrete sensors are used along the length of the probes in both
It should be further noted that this equal areas technique assumes that the flow rates through each sampling hole 705 will be similar. To ensure that this assumption will be true with equal sized sampling holes 705, it is important that the pressure drop across the sampling holes 705 is large in reference to the pressure drop along the length of the inside of the sampling tube 704 from the sampling hole 705a closest to the beginning of the sampling tube 704 to the sampling hole 705e farthest away. To a first order the difference in flow through the first hole vs. the last hole will be equal to the square root of the ratio of the pressure drop across the last hole and the pressure drop along the length of the sampling tube vs. the pressure drop of the first hole, assuming pressure drops that are representative of equal flow rates through each hole. Thus in a preferred embodiment to get a flow variation equal to 5% or less between the first sampling hole and the last sampling hole the preceding equation indicates that the sampling tube 704 pressure drop between sampling holes 705a and 705e should be no more than 10% of the pressure drops through the sampling holes 705. One way to increase this favorable pressure drop variation is to decrease the size of the holes 705 relative to the diameter of the sampling tube 704. For example, for a preferred inner diameter of the sampling tube 704 of approximately 0.25 inches ID, and assuming a sampling tube length of one foot and the use of 5 sampling holes located in the sampling tube 704 as shown in
Another approach for creating equal flows through the sampling holes with less pressure drop across the holes is to vary the size of the holes such that the closest hole to the beginning of the sampling tube such as sampling hole 705a in
In another embodiment, shown in
Additionally,
Where small particles are desired to be sensed by centralized sensors, a particle sieve that passes small particles is desired. An example of a particle sieve that can pass small particles is a screen element with holes that are large enough to pass the small particles of interest but small enough to block larger particles, fibers or hair. An example of a particle sieve that can pass small particles would be a wire screen with holes that are between 2 and 20 thousands of an inch in diameter. To create more surface area to prevent the screen from becoming blocked by larger particles in a short period of time, the total surface area of the screen or sieve can be enlarged by using a pleated structure using folds or waves of screen material as shown by particles sieve 903 or 904 in
When the sensor chamber 901 does not contain a particle sensor of a type that measures larger size particles, fibers, or hair such as those larger than 10 microns in diameter, it would probably be advantageous to filter the air before the sensor chamber as shown by the particle sieve 903 that is located before the sensor enclosure 901 in
Although specific features of the invention are shown in some drawings and not others, this is for convenience only as some feature may be combined with any or all of the other features in accordance with the invention.
Other embodiments will occur to those skilled in the art and are within the following claims:
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4547079 | Alamprese et al. | Oct 1985 | A |
| 4566342 | Kurz | Jan 1986 | A |
| 5072626 | Ensor et al. | Dec 1991 | A |
| 5292280 | Janu et al. | Mar 1994 | A |
| 5415029 | Uchiyama et al. | May 1995 | A |
| 5507192 | Beaudin | Apr 1996 | A |
| 5553507 | Basch et al. | Sep 1996 | A |
| 6125710 | Sharp | Oct 2000 | A |
| 6241950 | Veelenturf et al. | Jun 2001 | B1 |
| 6405577 | Hanashiro et al. | Jun 2002 | B2 |
| 6592254 | Gul | Jul 2003 | B2 |
| 6941193 | Frecksa et al. | Sep 2005 | B2 |
| 20020129668 | Gamache et al. | Sep 2002 | A1 |
| 20040166679 | Kishkovich et al. | Aug 2004 | A1 |
| 20050160838 | Weaver | Jul 2005 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country |
|---|---|---|
| WO 02063294 | Aug 2002 | WO |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20070137318 A1 | Jun 2007 | US |
