Mass flowmeter

Abstract

Disclosed is a mass flow rate meter having two U-shaped flow loops, means for vibrating the flow loops like the tines of a tuning fork, timing means on the loops for sensing the difference in times between the passing of the sides of the loop through the static plane of the loops, and sensing means for determining which side of the U-shaped tubes went through the static plane first. The time between the passing of the sides of the loops during one half cycle of the vibrations of the loops is combined with the time of another half cycle of the vibrations dependent upon which side of the loops pass through the static plane first. An embodiment is further disclosed having a microprocessor for combining the times, and for comparing these times with a selectable variance from the time of a predetermined set of vibrations before the present time measurement is accepted. Electronic circuitry is also disclosed which improves the time measurement of the timing means.

Description

BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to a means for measuring mass flow of fluid materials such as liquids, gas and fluid solid material wherein coriolis force is utilized as an indication of the mass flow. The flowmeter includes U-shaped tubes which are vibrated while a fluent material to be measured flows through the tubes. Means are included to measure the mass flow of the material flowing through the tubes responsive to the vibrating characteristic of the tubes as altered by coriolis forces acting on the tubes.

U.S. Pat. No. 2,865,201 to Roth discloses a mass flowmeter of the giroscopic type which includes an embodiment illustrated in FIG. 6 of that patent wherein the amplitude of the precession of the giroscopic flowmeter is measured to give an indication of the mass flow through the meter. It is generally recognized that precession in a giroscope is caused by coriolis force.

A patent to Sipin, U.S. Pat. No. 3,355,944, discloses measuring the amplitude of twist in a curved flow tube induced by coriolis force to determine the mass of material flowing through the meter.

A giroscopic/coriolis flowmeter developed by Micro Motion, Inc. of Boulder, Colo. is described at page 21 of the Dec. 19, 1977 volume of Chemical and Engineering News. The flowmeter includes a U-shaped pipe with a T-shaped leaf spring to form the legs of a tuning fork. The pipe is vibrated at its natural frequency and the angular deflection is measured with optical detectors.

The optical detectors are placed on the sides of the U-shaped pipe and are connected to an up-down counter such that when one side of the U-shaped pipe crosses the static plane, the counter counts down until the second side of the pipe crosses the static plane. In the following half cycle of the vibration of the U-shaped pipe, the up-down counter counts up during the interval between the passing of the first side and the second side of the U-shaped pipe crossing the static plane of the pipe. The mass flow rate is then a function of pipe geometry constants and the time interval determined by the up-down counter.

The invention of the present apparatus includes sensing means connected to two vibrating U-shaped tubes for sensing which side of the U-shaped tubes cross the static plane first, and timing means for timing the interval between the sides of the U-shaped tube passing through the static plane. The time intervals of successive half cycles of vibration are then combined based upon which side of the tube crossed the static plane first as determined by the mentioned sensing means.

The invention of the apparatus also includes peak vibration controlling means for controlling the peak amplitude of the vibration of the U-shaped tubes; proximity switching means within said sensing means for sensing when the sides of the tubes cross the static plane; and discriminator means for generating a pulse after the signal from the switching means reaches a predetermined level. This amplitude controlling means, switching means and discriminator means provide that the generated pulses from the discriminator means occurs after the output of the switching means is linear and holds the peak to peak amplitude of the tubes at a constant value during varying density of fluid for activating the switching at the same point of its operating characteristic curve.

Also disclosed is a means which compares with present time measurement with a set of a plurality of previous measurements for either rejecting or accepting the present time measurement depending upon whether the present time measurement falls within a given range of deviation from the mentioned previous plurality of measurements. Also included is a means for alternately selecting one value from a plurality of deviations for making the mentioned comparison.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawings include the following:

FIG. 1 is a three-dimensional diagram of the flowmeter showing two U-shaped tubes, electromagnetic vibrator means, and sensor means;

FIG. 2 is a closeup illustration showing a preferred embodiment of the sensor means;

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the displacement of the ends and the center of the cross member of one of the U-shaped tubes as the U-shaped tube is vibrated wherein the U-shaped tube has an initial twist and the meter has no flow therethrough;

FIG. 4 shows the cross member of the loop of FIG. 3 at its highest point of excursion due to the vibrator means;

FIG. 5 shows the cross member of the U-shaped tube of FIG. 3 when the cross member is moving in the downward direction and just prior to the left end of the U-shaped tube crossing the static plane of the tube;

FIG. 6 shows the cross member of the U-shaped tube of FIG. 3 when the U-shaped tube is moving in the upward direction and just prior to the right side of the U-shaped tube crossing the static plane of the tube;

FIG. 7 shows the cross member of the U-shaped tube of FIG. 3 at its lowest point of excursion due to the vibrator means;

FIG. 8 shows the waveforms of the displacement of the end and middle of the cross member of one of the U-shaped tubes during vibrating motions wherein the tube has an initial offset and a mass flow therethrough causing coriolis forces having peaks less than the initial offset;

FIG. 9 shows the cross member of the U-shaped tube of FIG. 8 when the U-shaped tube is moving in the downward direction and just prior to the left side of the U-shaped tube crossing the static plane of the tube;

FIG. 10 shows the cross member of the U-shaped tube of FIG. 8 when the U-shaped tube is moving in the upward direction and just prior to the right end of the cross member crossing the static plane of the tube;

FIG. 11 shows the waveforms of the displacement of the ends and the center of the cross member of one of the U-shaped tubes of the invention wherein the tube has an offset and a flow therethrough causing coriolis forces having peaks in excess of the initial offset;

FIG. 12 shows the cross member of the loop of FIG. 11 when the cross member is moving in the downward direction and just prior to the left side of the cross member crossing the static plane of the tube;

FIG. 13 shows the cross member of the loop of FIG. 11 when the cross member is moving in the upward direction and just prior to the left side of the cross member crossing the static plane of the tube;

FIG. 14 is a schematic diagram of a preferred embodiment of means for sensing which side of the vibrating loops crosses the static plane of the loop first when the two loops are vibrating as a tuning fork;

FIG. 15 is a timing diagram of various signals in the sensing means of FIG. 14;

FIG. 16 is an over-all schematic diagram of the electronics of the mass flowmeter; and

FIGS. 17a and 17b show a flow chart of a program which may be used with a microprocessor of the electronics of FIG. 16.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The mass flowmeter of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1 and comprises a base 10 supporting an upper U-shaped loop 11 having side legs 12 and 13 and a cross member 14 which forms the bight end of the loop, and lower U-shaped loop 16 having side legs 17 and 18 and a cross member 19 forming the bight end of that loop.

A connecting flow tube 20 on the opposite side of base 10 from the loops 11 and 16 provides cross flow from the outlet of lower loop 16 to the inlet of upper loop 11 through the base 10. A meter inlet 21 is provided through support 10 to the inlet of lower tube 16 and a meter outlet 22 is provided through the support 10 to the outlet of upper tube 11.

A right sensor means R is provided between the upper loop 11 and the lower loop 16 on the righthand legs 12 and 17 as one faces the support 10 from the bight ends 14 and 19 of the loops 11 and 16.

The right sensor R includes a flag 23 connected to the lower loop 16 and an interrupter module 24 connected to the upper loop 11.

A left sensor means L is provided on the lefthand legs 13 and 18 between the upper loop 11 and the lower loop 16. The sensor means L includes a flag 25 connected to the lower loop 16 and an interrupter module 26 connected to the upper loop 11.

At the middle of cross members 14 and 19 is located vibrating means 30 for imparting up and down motions to the loops 11 and 16 normal to the planes of the loops. One of several vibrating means may be employed. For instance, a magnetic pole piece 31 may be connected to the center point of one of the cross members 19 and a current winding 32 may be connected to the center point of the other cross member 14 for alternately attracting and repelling the pole piece 31 to cause the mentioned vibrations.

Other means may be employed which would move the center points of the cross members 14 and 19 in one direction while relying on the stored energy in the loops for providing the motion in the opposite direction.

Also included in vibrating means 30 is a sense coil 33, to be discussed later.

The inlet and outlet ends of the loops 11 and 16 are firmly fixed in support 10 such that the loops act as the tines of a tuning fork which when struck assist each other by sympathetic vibrations thus decreasing the power requirements of vibrating means 30 to maintain the loops in vibration.

A sensor means 35 such as a flag and interrupter module, similar to those of sensors R and L, is used for sensing the amplitude of the vibrations caused by vibration means 30. Other means such as those known in the art may be used to sense the amplitude of vibrations between loops 11 and 16.

The design of the side legs 12, 13 and side 17, 18 as disclosed in copending application Ser. No. 804,478 assigned to the assignee of the present invention may be used in the present invention. However, the invention of the present application may also be used with straight sided loops.

FIG. 2 is a representation of the sensor means used for right sensor R and left sensor L, and which may be used for the amplitude sensor 35. By way of example, the lower blade portion 27 of flag 25 is shown in the interrupter module 26 of the left sensor L. The interrupter module 26 includes two projecting arm portions 28 and 29 which form a saddle. The blade portion 27 is aligned to fit between the arms 28 and 29 and to move freely up and down without touching the interrupter module body 26. One of the arms contains a light source while the other arm contains a light sensor such as a phototransistor. When blade portion 27 is fully inserted in the saddle between arms 28 and 29, the light beam is interrupted to turn the interrupter module to, for instance, the off position. When blade 27 is sufficiently removed from between the saddle formed by the arms 28 and 29, the light beam again strikes the light sensor to turn the switch to the on position. Thus, the sensor means is used as a proximity switch which turns from the off to the on condition when the blade portion 27 reaches a predetermined position. This invention may be used with other proximity type detectors which are capable of indicating when the side legs of the loops 11 and 16 have reached predetermined positions.

Suitable interrupter modules may be acquired from a number of sources such as, for instance, General Electric Company under the designation of H13A1.

FIG. 3 illustrates the waveforms exhibited by the cross member 14 of upper loop 11. A similar set of waveforms may be developed for lower loop 16. FIGS. 4, 5, 6 and 7 illustrate the orientation of the cross member 14 as the upper loop is vibrated between its uppermost excursion and its lowermost excursion.

FIG. 4 illustrates cross member 14 and the connected side legs 12 and 13 when the cross member 14 is at the upper limits of its excursion. Since in a practical device it is impossible to orient the cross member 14 so it is perfectly level, an initial twist has been illustrated at an exaggerated angle .theta..sub.0 for clarity. This angle .theta..sub.0 results in the left side of cross member 14 being lower than the centerpoint 0 when there is no flow through the tubes 11 and 16 as shown in FIG. 4.

The preferred embodiment and the waveforms and equations herein have been developed assuming that the right sensor R is in the on position when the loops 11 and 16 are at rest. This may be accomplished for instance by assuming that the right leg 12 of the upper loop 11 is slightly higher than the left leg 13. This is referred to herein as a right cant to the loop. In a practical device this may be accomplished by calibrating the right sensor R to be on and the left sensor L to be in the off condition when the loops are at rest. Such a calibration similates the condition shown in FIG. 4 wherein the left side of cross member 14 is lower than the centerpoint 0 by the distance "d" when there is no flow through the meter.

FIG. 5 illustrates the cross member 14 when it is moving downwardly and assumes that the left leg 13 is passing through the static plane of the tube 11. Thus, in FIG. 5 the left sensor L is at the instant when it is changing from the on condition to the off condition, and the right sensor R is still in the on condition.

The cross member 14 in FIG. 6 is assumed to be moving in the up direction and is shown at the instant when the right leg 12 is passing through the plane of the loop 11 when loop 11 is at rest. At the instant illustrated in FIG. 6 the right sensor R is being switched from the off condition to the on condition, and the left sensor L is in the off condition.

The cross member 14 in FIG. 7 is illustrated as it would appear at the lowermost excursion of the vibrations of loop 11. At this instant the loop is changing from a down direction to an up direction and at the lowermost limits of its excursion the tube is actually at rest.

In all the FIGS. 4, 5, 6 and 7 there is no flow of material through the loops 12 and 13, thus there is no coriolis force acting on the tube to twist the cross member 14 about the centerpoint 0 and thus the angle of cross member 14 remains constant throughout the vibrations as shown in FIGS. 4, 5, 6 and 7.

In FIG. 3 the offset distance from the static plane of loop 11 to centerpoint 0 caused by the oscillatory motion of centerpoint 0 is illustrated as a sine wave 40. The offset distance caused by the oscillatory motion of the end of cross member 14 where the cross member 14 joins the left leg 13 is illustrated as sine wave 41. Likewise, the offset distance of the point where the cross member 14 joins right leg 12 is shown as sine wave 42. The initial offset distance "d" with respect to the left side of cross member 14 caused by the right cant of cross member 14 is shown as a negative constant 43 in FIG. 3.

It can be seen that the motion of the left end of cross member 14 is the sum of sine wave 40 and the negative offset constant 43 shown as waveform 42 in FIG. 3. The motion of the right end of cross member 14 is initially offset by a similar distance from the right side of the cross member 14 to its centerpoint 0, and may be seen in FIG. 3 to be equal to the difference between the sine wave 40 and the negative constant 43 and shown as waveform 41 in FIG. 3.

When the cross member 14 is at the upper end of its excursions as shown in FIG. 4, the right end of cross member 14 will be at its highest peak shown at 45 of waveform 41, the centerpoint 0 of the cross member 14 will be at its highest point shown at 46 of waveform 40, and the left end of cross member 14 will be at its highest peak shown at 47 of waveform 42.

When the cross member 14 is at the lower extremity of its excursions as shown in FIG. 7, the right end will be at its lowest point shown at 50 of waveform 41, the centerpoint 0 of cross member 14 will be at 51, and the left end of cross member 14 will be at 52.

As can be seen from FIG. 3 and from FIGS. 4 and 7, when cross member 14 is at the upper limits of its excursion, the waveforms 40, 41 and 42 will be at the peaks of their positive cycles, and the right end will be at a higher peak at 45 than the left end which is at 47.

When the cross member 14 is at its lower excursion, the waveforms 40, 41 and 42 will be at their negative peaks, and the left end will be at a lower position 52 than will the right end which is at 50.

When the cross member 14 is moving upwardly as shown in FIG. 6 the right end of cross member 14 will cross the zero axis first as shown at 55. Shortly afterward, the centerpoint 0 will cross the static plane shown as the zero axis as illustrated at 56. As the cross member 14 continues to move upwardly, the left end of the cross member 14 will cross the zero axis last as illustrated at 57.

When the cross member 14 is moving downwardly as shown in FIG. 5, the left end will cross the zero axis at 60 followed shortly by the centerpoint 0 which crosses the zero axis at 61, which is then followed by the right end at 62.

When there is no flow through the flowmeter, the time between points 55 and 57, designated as "a" in FIG. 3, will be equal to the time between points 60 and 62, designated as "b" in FIG. 3.

A square wave 65 is shown in FIG. 3 showing the condition of right sensor R. Right sensor R is in the on condition when the right side of cross member 14 crosses the zero axis in the positive direction, and stays on until the right side of cross member 14 crosses the zero axis at the end of its positive half cycle. R is then in the off condition while the right side of cross member 14 is in its negative half cycle.

A square wave 66 likewise shows the condition of the left sensor L which is turned to the on condition when the left side of cross member 14 crosses the zero axis, and stays on during the positive half cycle of the wave 47. L then moves to the off condition at 60 when the left side of cross member 14 crosses the zero axis, and stays off while wave 42 is in its negative half cycle. Thus time "a" may be measured by observing the times between the arrival of the positive edges of square waves 65 and 66, and the time "b" may be measured by observing the arrival of the trailing edges of square waves 65 and 66.

It will be observed that when there is no flow in loops 11 and 16 time "a" will equal time "b."

FIG. 8 displays the waveforms of cross member 14 when there is flow in the loops 11 and 16 such that the force couple F.sub.c and F.sub.c ' created by the coriolis force causes the left sensor L to turn on earlier with increasing flow. The offset angle .theta..sub.0 is assumed to be the same with cross member 14 having an initial right cant.

FIG. 9 illustrates the cross member 14 when the right side of the cross member is passing through the zero axis 55a in FIG. 8. At this position the angle .theta..sub.c caused by the coriolis force is in a positive direction and adds to the initial offset angle .theta..sub.0. The oscillatory offset of centerpoint 0 of cross member 14 is unaffected by the coriolis force and is illustrated as sine wave 40 which is identical to the sine wave 40 shown in FIG. 3. The negative initial offset distance "d" is shown as a negative constant 43 as before. The coriolis force offset of force F.sub.c for the left side of tube 13 is shown as a generally cosine shaped wave 44 and has a negative peak 68 which is slightly less than the negative constant 43. The amplitude of the coriolis force at any instant of time may be calculated from the known equation:

F.sub.c '=-2M W.times.V where: F is the vectorial coriolis force acting on, for instance, the left leg 13 of the loop 11 of the flowmeter in FIG. 1 and designated F.sub.c ' in FIGS. 9, 10, 12 and 13;

M is the mass of the material flowing through the left leg 13;

W is the vectorial angular velocity of the leg 13; and

V is the vectorial velocity of the flow of the material through leg 13.

The exact wave shape of the left side coriolis force F.sub.c ' is unknown, but is believed to have a maximum peak 68 which occurs some time slightly earlier than when the centerpoint 0 of cross member 14 crosses the zero axis at 61. This is believed to occur because, during the downward travel of cross member 14, the coriolis force F.sub.c ' on left leg 13 will cause a twist in the cross member 14 which will induce a velocity component in the left side of member 14. This induced velocity component will act as positive feedback which in turn increases the coriolis force F.sub.c ' on the left end of cross member 14.

It is believed that the coriolis force F.sub.c on the right side 14 will act as negative feedback when the cross member 14 is moving downwardly to cause the peak of the right side coriolis force F.sub.c to peak slightly after the centerpoint 0 crosses the zero axis.

Similarly, when the cross member 14 is moving upwardly from the negative peak 51 to the following positive peak, it is believed that the described coriolis force components act as a positive feedback on the right leg 12 and a negative feedback on left leg 13 respectively.

The exact waveform of the displacement of the left end and the right end of cross member 14 due to coriolis forces alone is not known, but it is believed that the waveform for the right end to be that shown as 41a and 41b in FIGS. 8 and 11 respectively, and the waveform for the left end to be that shown as 42a and 42b in FIGS. 8 and 11 respectively.

It is believed that the peaks 45 and 50 for the right end of 14 will occur at about the same time as peaks 46 and 51 for the centerpoint 0 in both of the conditions described in connection with FIGS. 8 and 11. It is believed that the peaks 47 and 52 for the left end of 14 also occur at about the same time as the peaks 46 and 51 for centerpoint 0 in connection with FIGS. 8 and 11.

It is known that the zero crossings 55a and 62a of the right side 12 are related to the zero crossings 57a and 60a of the left side 13 as shown in FIG. 8; and that the zero crossings 55b and 62b of the right side 12 are related to the zero crossings 57b and 60b of the left side 13 as shown in FIG. 11. It is also known that the movement of the ends of cross member 14 will additionally be affected by other forces, such as for instance inertial forces, not shown in FIG. 8 or 11. It will be understood that inertial forces of the tubes and the material in the tubes due to the vibrations 56 will be at a minimum at the zero crossings such as 56 and 61 of FIGS. 8 and 11. However, the inertial forces of the tubes and the material in the tubes due to the back and forth twist of member 14 caused by coriolis forces F.sub.c and F.sub.c ' will be maximum at or near the time the ends of the member 14 go through the zero axis.

Thus, by measuring the time difference between the passing of the sides of the loops 11 and 16 through the zero axis, and utilizing the present invention for sensing which side of the tube went through the zero axis first, it is possible to determine the mass flow of material flowing through the meter without relating the amplitude of deflection of the tubes back to the complex forces causing the deflection.

FIG. 10 illustrates cross member 14 when cross member 14 is moving in the upward direction. The force couple F.sub.c and F.sub.c ' is working against the initial offset and .theta..sub.0. The angle .theta..sub.c caused by this force couple is subtracted from the offset angle .theta..sub.0 in FIG. 10 to show the deflection as cross member 14 starts through the static plane of the tube 11. As can be seen from FIGS. 8 and 10, the right side of cross member 14 crosses the zero axis first at 55a, the centerpoint 0 crosses slightly later at 56, which is followed by the left side of cross member 14 at 57a. As the velocity of cross member 14 slows to a positive peak the coriolis force couple F.sub.c and F.sub.c ' decreases until at the peak points 45, 46 and 47 the orientation of cross member 14 due to coriolis deflection alone is believed to be that shown in FIG. 4.

When the cross member 14 starts moving in the downward direction illustrated in FIG. 9, the coriolis force couple F.sub.c and F.sub.c ' assists the initial offset angle .theta..sub.0 such that the angle .theta..sub.c caused by the coriolis force couple is added to the offset angle .theta..sub.0 in FIG. 9 showing the orientation of cross member 14 just prior to cross member 14 crossing the static plane of tube 11. As illustrated in FIG. 9, the left side of cross member 14 crosses the zero axis first at 60a, followed by the centerpoint 0 of cross member 14 at 61. Finally, the right side of cross member 14 crosses the zero axis at 62a.

As shown in FIG. 8, the curve 41a of the left side of cross member 14 is the sum of sine wave 40, showing the offset of centerpoint 0, generally cosine shaped wave 44 showing the offset caused by coriolis force F.sub.c ', and negative offset 43 showing the initial offset distance "d" of the left side of 14. The waveform 41a of the right side of cross member 14 is similarly affected by an initial offset distance and a deflection caused by the coriolis force F.sub.c. The components of waveform 41a are not shown in FIGS. 8 or 11 for clarity.

The leading edge of square wave 65a indicates when the right side of cross member 14 crosses the zero axis, and the leading edge of square wave 66a indicates when the left side of cross member 14 crosses the zero axis. The time difference between the leading edges of square waves 65a and 66a is indicated by time "a."

As illustrated in FIG. 9, the left side of cross member 14 crosses the centerpoint at 60a first as shown by the trailing edge of square wave 66a. The right side of cross member 14 crosses the zero axis last as shown by the trailing edge of wave 65a. The difference between the trailing edge of square wave 66a and the trailing edge of square wave 65a can be measured as time "b."

It can be seen from FIG. 8 that time "b" is larger than time "a." In effect, the square wave 66a has moved to the left with respect to square wave 65a inside square wave 65a from that position shown by waves 56 and 66 in FIG. 3. The subtraction of time "a" from time "b" results in a time that is twice the value of the times between passing of the right and left legs if there were no initial offset.

The difference between the passing of the side legs of the loops in the flowmeter is directly proportional to the mass flow of the material flowing through the loops. If the peaks 45, 46 and 47 of the waves 40, 41a and 42a were increased, the zero crossings 55a, 56 and 57a would remain the same. However, the slopes of the waves 40, 41a and 42a would increase at the zero crossings to indicate that the displacement of the centerpoint 0 and the ends of the cross member 14 would be changed at any instant of time with the change of the peaks 45, 46 and 47.

This can be understood physically by looking, for instance, at FIG. 9. If the velocity V of the centerpoint 0 is increased, the coriolis force couple would increase to increase .theta..sub.c. This increased angle would cause the left side of cross member 14 to move downwardly to have a greater displacement from centerpoint 0 in a down direction. However, the twist about centerpoint 0 caused by the coriolis force couple would cause the right side to move upwardly to have a positive displacement from centerpoint 0. Centerpoint 0 would be moving downwardly at a higher velocity but the left side would arrive at the zero crossing earlier to thus cancel the effect of the increased velocity. The time of arrivals between the left side and the centerpoint 0 would be equal on a time basis. Likewise, the right side of the cross member 14 would be moved upwardly such that the increased velocity would be offset by the greater displacement between the centerpoint 0 and the right side of cross member 14. Thus on a time basis, the time of passing of the left side of cross member 14 and the right side would remain the same even if the amplitude of the vibratory motion of cross member 14 were increased or the natural frequency of vibration changed.

It can thus be seen that in both FIG. 3 and in FIG. 8 the correct answer for calculating the coriolis force couple can be arrived at by subtracting time "a" from time "b." This relationship always remains true as long as the leading edge of the square wave from the right sensor R leads the leading edge of the square wave from the left sensor L.

FIG. 11 illustrates the waveforms present when the coriolis force F.sub.c ' has a negative peak 68a which is greater than the negative offset 43. This situation is illustrated in FIG. 12 when the cross member 14 is moving in the down direction, and in FIG. 13 when the cross member 14 is moving in the up direction.

FIG. 13 illustrates the cross member 14 just prior to the left side passing through the zero axis as shown at 57b in FIG. 11. The angle .theta..sub.c caused by the coriolis force couple is greater than the offset angle .theta..sub.0 so that the difference in the two angles causes the left side of cross member 14 to slightly lead the centerpoint 0 of the cross member 14. Because of this twist, the right side of cross member 14 will slightly lag behind the left side as shown at 55b. This means that the leading edge of the square wave 66b caused by turning on the left sensor L will lead the leading edge of square wave 65b caused by turning on right sensor R.

Since the coriolis force will return to zero when the cross member 14 is at its maximum positive displacement where its angular velocity is zero, it is believed the peaks 45, 46 and 47 due to coriolis displacement alone occur at about the same time in FIG. 11 as in FIG. 3. Cross member 14 when at its peak of excursion in the upward direction, and without forces other than coriolis forces being present is illustrated in FIG. 4. It is believed that without other forces being present, FIG. 7 illustrates the orientation of cross member 14 when it is at its lower peak of excursion with the right side at 50, its centerpoint 0 at 51, and its left side at 52.

When the cross member 14 is moving in the downward direction as shown in FIG. 12, the left side will cross the zero axis at 60b first, the centerpoint 0 will cross the zero axis next at 61, and the right side will cross the zero axis last at 62b. Thus it can be seen that when the peak 70a of the coriolis force F.sub.c ' waveform 44a is greater than the initial offset distance "d" shown at 43, the leading edge of the square wave 66b caused by the left sensor L turning on will lead the leading edge of the square wave 65b caused by the turning on of the right sensor R.

The trailing edge of square wave 66b will lead the trailing edge of square wave 65b since when the loop 11 is moving downwardly, the offset angle .theta..sub.0 is helped by the coriolis force couple F.sub.c and F.sub.c ' to add the coriolis force angle .theta..sub.c to .theta..sub.0. The left side will then lead the right side as the cross member 14 crosses the zero axis. In this situation the time "a" is added to the time "b" to determine the proper contribution to the twist of member 14 caused by the coriolis force couple exerted by the material flowing through the tubes of the loops 11 and 16.

Thus, when the flowmeter of the present invention is calibrated such that at rest the right sensor is turned on and the left sensor is turned off and the flow through the tubes is such that the left sensor turns on earlier with increasing flow, then a check may be made to determine whether the leading edges of the square wave to be first sensed is caused by the right sensor R or the left sensor L. If the leading edge of the first square wave to be sensed is caused by the right sensor R, then the time "a" is subtracted from the time "b" to give a value indicative of the mass flow of the material flowing through the meter. If however the first square wave sensed is caused by the left sensor L, then the time "a" is added to the time "b" to give a value which is indicative of the mass flow of the material flowing through the meter.

Similar diagrams for the orientation of the lower cross member 19 and waveforms of its motion may be developed by one skilled in the art. However, with the sensor interrupter modules connected to one loop, and the interrupting flags connected to the other loop, and with an initial offset calibrated into the device such that at rest the right sensor R is on and the left sensor L is off, the actual deviations of the cross member 14 and 19 is compensated for, and the study of FIGS. 3-13 is sufficient to understand the invention.

The electronics for the zero correcting feature of the present invention is shown in schematic logic diagram FIG. 14. The output signal VOL of the left sensor L is input into a buffer circuit 70 which isolates the left sensor L. Likewise, the output VOR of the right sensor R is input into a buffer circuit 71. The output of buffer circuit 70 is provided to comparators 72 and 73 each of which acts to compare the output to a positive reference voltage to ensure that the output VOL has reached a linear portion of its curve before the comparator is switched. If the waveform of VOL is declining, the comparators 72 and 73 will switch to the positive condition when the output VOL falls below the predetermined reference voltage. In this case the comparators 72 and 73 are switched to give a logical zero output while the waveform of VOL is still in its linear portion of the curve when the waveform is falling due to the relative velocity between the interrupter module 26 and the blade 25 when the blade portion 27 is between the arms 28 and 29.

Comparators 72 and 73 act as inverters in that when VOL rises above a certain point, the output from comparators 72 and 73 will be a logical zero and when VOL falls below the reference voltage the output from comparators 72 and 73 will be a logical one.

The output of comparator 73 is supplied to an inverter 74 to provide a logical one when the output of comparator 73 is a logical zero and to provide a logical zero when the output of comparator 73 is a logical one. The output of comparator 72 is labeled W2L and the output of inverter 74 is labeled W1L.

The voltage W2L is used to determine window 2 while the voltage W1L is used to determine window 1. Window 1 refers to the leading edges of the waveforms WOL and WOR. Window 2 refers to the trailing edges of VOL and VOR. The determination of the mentioned windows 1 and 2 will be discussed later.

The output of buffer circuit 71 is supplied to comparators 75 and 76. Comparators 75 and 76 serve similar functions as comparators 72 and 73 in that they provide a logical zero when voltage VOR rises above a predetermined reference voltage, and provide a logical one when voltage VOR falls below the predetermined reference voltage.

The output of comparator 76 is connected to the input of an inverter 77 for providing a logical one when the output of comparator 76 is a logical zero and for providing a logical zero when the output of comparator 76 is a logical one.

The output of comparator 75 is labeled W2R and the output of inverter 77 is labeled W1R. W1R and W2R are used for the determination of window 1 and window 2 respectively.

The output of inverter 74 supplying W1L is connected to the clock of a D-type edge triggered flip flop 78, one input of an exclusive OR gate 99, and the D terminal of a D-type edge triggered flip flop 86.

The output of comparator 72 supplying W2L is connected to one input of an exclusive OR gate 100, the clock of a D-type edge triggered flip flop 82, and the D terminal of a D-type edge triggered flip flop 87.

The output of inverter 77 supplying W1R is connected to the clock of a D-type edge triggered flip flop 79, one input of exclusive OR gate 99, and the clock of D-type edge triggered flip flop 86.

The output of comparator 75 supplying W2R is connected to one input of exclusive OR gate 100, the clock of D-type edge triggered flip flop 83, and the clock of D-type edge triggered flip flop 87.

The set terminals, sometimes referred to as the preset terminal, and the D terminals of flip flops 78, 79, 82 and 83 are connected to a logical one through terminals 80, 81, 84 and 85. The reset terminals, sometimes referred to as the clear terminal, of flip flops 78 and 79 are connected together and the reset terminals of flip flops 82 and 83 are tied together and are connected to the AND gates 110 and 111 respectively, whose function will be referred to later.

The set and reset terminals of flip flop 86 are tied together and connected to a logical one through terminal 88. Likewise, the set and reset terminals of flip flop 87 are tied together and are supplied a logical one through terminal 89.

Flip flops 78 and 79, flip flops 82 and 83, and flip flops 86 and 87 are grouped together and are dual D-type edge triggered flip flops preferably such as SN 7474. These flip flops transfer input information to the outputs on the positive edge of the clock pulse. Thus, if the D terminal has a logical one at the arrival of the positive edge of the clock pulse, a logical zero is transferred to the Q output. A low input to the reset terminal of a D-type edge triggered flip flop resets the Q output to a logical one. The reset function is independent of the clock terminal.

The Q outputs of flip flops 78 and 79 are supplied to the input terminals of NAND gate 90. The output of NAND gate 90 is supplied to an RC circuit 91 which is in turn connected to the input of inverter 92. The output of inverter 92 is connected to the A1 terminal of a one shot device 96 and to one of the inputs of AND gate 111. When the output of NAND gate 90 goes high, the RC circuit 91 produces a positive pulse which, when inverted by inverter 92, has sufficient amplitude and duration to fire the one shot device 96. This output pulse from inverter 92 is also supplied to one input of AND gate 111 which in turn causes the output of AND gate 111 to go low to reset flip flops 82 and 83.

The Q outputs of gates 82 and 83 are connected to the inputs of NAND gate 93 whose output is connected to RC circuit 94. The output of RC circuit 94 is in turn connected to the input of inverter 95. The output of inverter 95 is connected to the A2 terminal of one shot device 96 and to one of the input terminals of AND gate 110. A positive going pulse produced by RC circuit 94 is inverted by inverter 95 and has sufficient amplitude and duration to fire one shot device 96 and to cause the output of AND gate 110 to go low thereby resetting flip flops 78 and 79.

The other inputs to AND gates 110 and 111 are supplied by the output of NAND gate 109 which is connected to act as an inverter for a reset signal supplied to its inputs. The reset signal, labeled RST in FIG. 14 is normally a logical zero. This logical zero is inverted by NAND gate 109 to be a logical one which is supplied to AND gates 110 and 111.

The outputs from inverters 92 and 95 will normally be logical ones. If a positive going pulse is produced by RC circuit 91, it is inverted by inverter 92 to a negative going pulse which applies a logical zero to AND gate 111. The logical one and logical zero at the inputs of AND gate 111 causes logical zero at the output of AND gate 111 which acts to reset the Q output of flip flops 82 and 83 to a logical one. Likewise, if a positive going pulse is produced by RC circuit 94, the output of inverter 95 produces a logical zero for the duration of the pulse and applies a logical zero to AND gate 110. The logical one and logical zero inputs to AND gate 110 causes the output of AND gate 110 to supply a logical zero to the resets of flip flops 78 and 79 to cause the Q outputs of 78 and 79 to go to a logical one.

The output of exclusive OR gate 99 is supplied to one input of NAND gate 101, and the other input of NAND gate 101 is connected to the output of NAND gate 90. Similarly, one input to NAND gate 102 is connected to the output of exclusive OR gate 100 and the other input of NAND gate 102 is connected to the outut of NAND gate 93.

The output of NAND gates 101 and 102 are supplied to the inputs of NAND gate 103. The output of NAND gate 103 is the .phi. signal provided to a microprocessor of the preferred device.

The output of NAND gate 93 is connected to conductor 104 which supplies the W2/W1 output for use by the microprocessor of the preferred device. The W2/W1 signal is in a high condition during the falling edges of VOL or VOR and is referred to herein as window 2. The W2/W1 signal is in a low condition during the rising edge of VOL or VOR and is referred to herein as window 1.

One of the input terminals of AND gate 107 is connected to conductor 104 and thus to the output of NAND gate 93, and the other input of AND gate 107 is connected to the Q terminal of flip flop 87. Similarly, one input of the AND gate 106 is connected to the output of NAND gate 90 by conductor 105, and the other input of AND gate 106 is connected to the Q terminal of the flip flop 86. The output of AND gates 106 and 107 are connected to the inputs of NOR gate 108. The output of NOR gate 108 provides the POS/NEG output.

The POS/NEG output is in the high condition when, for instance, time "a" should be added to time "b" as illustrated and discussed in connection with FIGS. 3 and 8. The POS/NEG signal is in the low condition when, for instance, the time difference between the leading edges of waveforms VOL and VOR should be negative such as a case illustrated in FIG. 11 when time interval "a" should be subtracted from time interval "b." Exceptions may be made to the polarity of the POS/NEG signal in the case of reverse flow, which case will be discussed later.

Flip flops 78 and 79 determine the first leading edge of either VOL or VOR.

Flip flops 82 and 83 sense the first occurrence of the trailing edge of either of the voltage waves VOL or VOR. Exclusive OR gates 99 and 100 detect the time difference between the rising edges of VOL and VOR, and the falling edges of VOL and VOR. Flip flops 86 and 87 determine which of the rising or falling edges of the two waveforms VOL and VOR occurred first.

FIG. 15 illustrates the timing diagram of various of the waveforms involved which illustrates the operation of the circuit of FIG. 14. At the beginning of each waveform of FIG. 15 it is assumed that both VOL and VOR are in the low position, that the Q outputs of flip flops 78 and 79 are in the high position having been reset by a previous waveform, the Q outputs of flip flops 82 and 83 are in the low position having been transferred there by logical one inputs from previous W2L and W2R waveforms, the Q output of flip flop 86 is in the high position and the Q output of flip flop 87 is in the low position having been transferred there by previous waveforms. These settings would result in a .phi. signal output which is low, a W2/W1 output which is high, and a POS/NEG output which is high.

If the starting point were assumed to have occurred after the reset signal RST has been supplied to NAND gate 109, then the Q outputs of flip flops 78, 79, 82 and 83 would be moved to a logical one, and this would result in a change to the diagram wherein the W2/W1 signal would be in the low condition.

If VOR turns on first as the case is illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 8, and illustrated in FIG. 15 at the intersection of VOR waveform 116 and the vertical line 130, the W2R voltage from comparator 75 would go from a high to a low as illustrated in the intersection of curve 119 and vertical line 130 in FIG. 15, and the voltage W1R from converter 77 would go from a low to a high as illustrated in FIG. 15 at the intersection of waveform 120 and vertical line 130.

The logical one input into the clock terminal of flip flop 79 by voltage W1R would cause the Q output of flip flop 79 to go low which when fed into the NAND gate 90 with the high from the Q output of flip flop 78 would cause the output from NAND gate 90 to go high. This high would cause a pulse to be produced by the RC circuit 91 which is inverted by inverter 92. This negative pulse would trigger the one shot device 96 to cause the DATAREADY signal output to go low as illustrated in the intersection of waveform 122 and vertical line 130 in FIG. 15. The time that one shot circuit 96 produces the negative pulse would be determined by the RC circuit 98. This time is illustrated by the width "c" of the negative pulses of waveform 122. The time "c" is designed to be sufficiently longer than the longest time between the crossings of the zero plane of the ends of cross member 14 in either the up or down direction as discussed in connection with FIGS. 3-13. This time "c" includes additional time such that the times "a" or "b" may be calculated in order that a representation of the time widths "a" or "b" may be supplied to a microprocessor of the preferred device when the DATAREADY signal 122 again goes to the high condition at the end of time "c."

The negative going pulse from inverter 92 is also supplied to AND gate 111 which in turn supplies a logical zero to reset terminals of flip flops 82 and 83 to move the Q outputs of the mentioned flip flops 82 and 83 to a logical one. These logical ones are supplied to NAND gate 93 which causes a low to be supplied to conductor 104 as illustrated by the W2/W1 going low at the intersection of waveform 123 and vertical line 130 of FIG. 15.

W1R is a logical one and W1L is a logical zero which causes exclusive OR gate 99 to give a high output. W2L is a high and W2R is switched to the low condition which causes exclusive OR gate 100 to also give a high output. The output supplied by exclusive OR gate 99 and the high output supplied by the output of NAND gate 90 is fed to NAND gate 101 which produces a low output which is in turn supplied to NAND gate 103. The high output of exclusive OR gate 100 is supplied to the input of NAND gate 102 with the low output of NAND gate 93 thereby causing a high output from NAND gate 102 which in turn is supplied to the other input of NAND gate 103. These high and low inputs result in a high output being supplied by NAND gate 103 as illustrated by the .phi. output of the intersection of waveform 121 and vertical line 130.

The positive edge of wave W1R supplied to the clock of flip flop 86 and the low input to the D terminal caused by voltage W1L will cause a high output from the Q terminal of flip flop 86. This high output is supplied with the high output of NAND gate 90 to AND gate 106 to produce a high output from AND gate 106. The low output of NAND gate 73 and the low output of flip flop 87 is supplied to AND gate 107 which produces a low output. The high output of AND gate 106 and the low output of AND gate 107 are supplied to NOR gate 108 which causes the POS/NEG wave to go low as illustrated at the intersection of waveform 124 and vertical line 130 of FIG. 15.

When the leading edge of VOL is detected as illustrated at the intersection of waveform 115 and vertical line 131, the W2L output of comparator 72 goes low as illustrated by the intersection of waveform 117 and vertical line 131, and the W1L output of inverter 77 goes high as illustrated by the intersection of waveform 118 and vertical line 131.

The high voltage W1L is supplied to the clock of flip flop 78 as a logical one, and the positive leading edge causes the Q output of flip flop 79 to go low. This low is supplied to the input with the low from Q of flip flop 79 to NAND gate 90 to maintain the output of NAND gate 90 in a high condition. The W1L input to exclusive OR gate 99 goes to a high which, with the high input of W1R, causes the exclusive OR gate 99 to switch its output to a low. This low output is supplied to one input of NAND gate 101 with the high output of NAND gate 90 to the other input, to cause a high output from NAND gate 101 to be supplied to one of the inputs of NAND gate 103.

The low input of W2L supplied with the low input of W2R to exclusive OR gate 100 causes the output of OR gate 100 to be changed to a low condition which is supplied to one input of NAND gate 102 with the low from the output of NAND gate 93 to the other input. These two low inputs cause the output of NAND gate 102 to move to a high condition which is supplied to the other input of NAND gate 103.

The two high inputs of NAND gate 103 cause the .phi. signal to move to a low condition as illustrated at the intersection of waveform 121 and vertical line 131. The width of the pulse produced by .phi. signal 121 between vertical lines 130 and 131 is the time "a" illustrated in FIG. 8.

Since the inputs to the other elements are not operative waveforms, the other elements remain the same, and W2/W1 signal 123 and POS/NEG signal 124 remain in the low condition at vertical line 131.

It will be noted that the W2/W1 signal 123 is in its low condition to indicate that the waveforms VOL and VOR are in window 1 and that a leading edge is being processed. The POS/NEG signal 124 is also low which indicates that the pulse width "a" of the .phi. signal 121 between vertical lines 130 and 131 should have a negative value.

At the end of time "c" as determined by RC network 98, the Q output of flip flop 96 again does to a logical one as indicated by the waveform 122 moving to the positive condition at 143.

At vertical line 132, the VOL waveform 115 goes to a low to indicate the beginning of a trailing edge. When the VOL waveform 115 goes low, the W2L waveform 117 goes high and the W1L waveform 118 goes low as indicated at line 132. The high of W2L is supplied to the clock input of flip flop 82 to cause the Q output of flip flop 82 to go low. This low output is provided to NAND gate 93 with the high output of flip flop 83 to cause the output of NAND gate 93 to move to a high. This high output causes the W2/W1 waveform 123 to move to a high condition. The high output of NAND gate 93 also causes a positive pulse output of RC circuit 94 which is inverted by inverter 95. This inverted signal is supplied to one shot device 96 to cause a negative pulse of time width "c" at the Q terminal of 96. The output of inverter 95 is also supplied to AND gate 110 which causes a logical zero to be supplied the reset terminals of flip flops 78 and 79 to cause the Q outputs of those flip flops to go high.

The high of the output of NAND gate 93 is supplied with the low Q output of flip flop 87 to the inputs of AND gate 107 to maintain the output of AND gate 107 in the low conditions.

The logical zero of the low of W1L is supplied to the input of exclusive OR gate 99 with the high of W1R which causes the input of OR gate 99 to go high. This high supplied to the inputs of NAND gate 101 with the low output of NAND gate 90 to maintain the output of NAND gate 101 in the high condition. The logical one of the high of W2L is supplied to exclusive OR gate 100 with the logical zero of W2R to cause the output of exclusive OR gate 100 to go high. This high is supplied to the inputs of NAND gate 102 with the high output of NAND gate 93 which causes the output of NAND gate 102 to go low. This low is supplied to the input of NAND gate 103 with the high of the output of NAND gate 101 to cause the .phi. signal 121 to move to the high condition as illustrated at vertical line 132. The high of flip flop 86 is provided to AND gate 106 with the low output of NAND gate 90 to produce a low output from AND gate 106. This low output is supplied with the low output of AND gate 107 to the inputs of NOR gate 108 to cause the POS/NEG waveform 124 to move to the high condition at vertical line 132.

The high condition of the W2/W1 signal 123 indicates that the window 2 or trailing edge of the signals VOL or VOR is being processed.

When the VOR waveform 116 goes to the low condition at vertical line 133, the W2R signal 119 moves to the high condition and the W1R signal 120 moves to the low condition.

The high value of W2R is supplied to the clock of flip flop 83 causing the Q output to move to the low condition. This low condition is supplied with the low condition of the Q output of flip flop 82 to NAND gate 93. However NAND gate is already in the high condition as discussed in connection with the vertical line 132, and its output is not changed.

The logical zero of the low of W1R is supplied to the inputs of exclusive OR gate 99 with the low of W1L to cause the output of exclusive OR gate 99 to move to the low condition. The logical one of the high of W2R is provided to exclusive OR gate 100 with the high of W2L to cause the output of exclusive OR gate 100 to also move to the low condition. The low output of exclusive OR gate 99 is provided to the inputs of NAND gate 101 with the low output of NAND gate 90 which causes no change in the high output of NAND gate 101.

The low output of exclusive OR gate 100 is provided to the inputs of NAND gate 102 with the high of the output of NAND gate 93 to cause the output of NAND gate 102 to move to the high condition. This logical one is supplied to the input of NAND gate 103 with the logical one provided by the output of NAND gate 101 to cause the output of NAND gate 103 to move to a low condition. Thus at vertical line 133, the .phi. signal waveform 121 moves to the low condition. The condition of the other elements of FIG. 14 are also not changed by the W1R and W2R changes and thus the other signals 123 and 124 remain in the same condition. The high of POS/NEG signal 124 indicates that the time of the .phi. signal 121 between vertical lines 132 and 133 should have a positive value.

As mentioned in connection with waveform 122 at 143, at the end of time period "c" the DATAREADY signal 122 moves to the positive condition at a time before vertical line 134.

Illustrated at vertical line 134 is the condition where the mass flow through the tubes 14 and 16 of the flowmeter illustrated in FIG. 1 is sufficient to cause the left sensor L to turn on first and thus VOL will move to the high condition before VOR as discussed in connection with FIGS. 11, 12 and 13.

When the VOL waveform 15 goes to the high condition at vertical lines 134, the W2L waveform 117 goes low and the W1L waveform 118 goes high. The new high of W1L is supplied to the clock input of flip flop 78 to cause the Q output of flip flop 78 to go to the low condition. This low condition is supplied with the high output of the Q terminal of flip flop 79 to the NAND gate 90 to cause the output of the NAND gate 90 to go to the high condition. This high condition causes a positive going pulse at the output of RC circuit 91 which is inverted by the inverter 92 and supplied to the A1 terminal of one shot 96 to cause the DATAREADY signal 122 to move low at vertical line 134. This low output of inverter 92 is also provided to AND gate 111 which in turn supplies a low to the reset terminals of flip flops 82 and 83 to move their Q outputs to the high condition. These high conditions are supplied to the input terminals of NAND gate 93 to cause the output of NAND gate 93 to go low, and thus the W2/W1 waveform 123 to move low at vertical line 134.

The present high of W1L is supplied with the previous low of W1R to exclusive OR gate 99 to cause the output of exclusive OR gate 99 to go high. This high is supplied with the high output of NAND gate 90 to the inputs of NAND gate 101 which causes the output of NAND gate 101 to move to the low condition. The new low of W2L is supplied with the previous high of W2R to the exclusive OR gate 100 to cause output of exclusive OR gate 100 to move to the high condition. This high condition is supplied with the low output of NAND gate 93 to the input terminals of NAND gate 102 to cause its output to move to the high condition. The high output of NAND gate 102 is supplied with the low output of NAND gate 101 to the input terminals of NAND gate 103 to cause the .phi. signal 121 to move to the high condition. The high Q output of flip flop 86 is supplied with the new high output of NAND gate 90 to AND gate 106 to cause a new high output of AND gate 106.

The new low condition of the output of NAND gate 93 is supplied with the low output of Q of flip flop 87 to AND gate 107 to maintain the output of AND gate 107 in the low condition. The high output of AND gate 106 and the low output of AND gate 107 is supplied to the input terminals of NOR gate 108 to cause the POS/NEG signal 124 to move to the low condition.

At the end of window 1 illustrated as vertical line 135 in FIG. 15, the VOR signal goes to its high condition resulting in the W2R waveform 119 going to its low condition and W1R waveform 120 going to its high condition. The logical one input of the W1R signal to the clock of flip flop 86 causes the Q output of flip flop 86 to go to its low condition.

The logical one of the high condition of W1R is also input into the clock of flip flop 79 causing a low condition to be transferred to the Q output of flip flop 79. This low condition is input into NAND gate 90 with the previous low condition of the Q output of flip flop 78 to maintain the output of NAND gate 90 in the high condition. The logical zero of the Q output of flip flop 78 is input with the high conditon of NAND gate 90 to the inputs of AND gate 106, switching the output of AND gate 106 to the low condition.

The output of AND gate 107 is not changed by the rising voltage of the VOR signal 116 and thus the low inputs into NOR gate 108 results in the POS/NEG signal 124 going to the high condition.

The logical one of the W1R signal 120 input into the exclusive OR gate 99 with the high of the W1L signal 118 causes the output of exclusive OR gate 99 to be changed to the low condition. This low condition is input with the high condition of the output of NAND gate 90 into the NAND gate 101 resulting in the output of NAND gate 101 changing to the high condition. The low condition of W2R waveform 119 is input into the exclusive OR gate 100 with the low condition of the W2L signal 117 resulting in the output of exclusive OR gate 100 changing to the low condition. This low condition is input with the low output of NAND gate 93 into the NAND gate 102 to maintain the output of NAND gate 102 in the high condition. The high output of NAND gate 102 is input with the new high output of NAND gate 101 into the NAND gate 103 to cause the .phi. signal 121 to be switched to the low condition. The inputs into the other elements of FIG. 14 are not operative to change the output conditions of any of these elements and thus the condition of the W2/W1 signal 123 remains in the low condition.

The situation where the VOL output of the left sensor L is turned on before the VOR output of the right sensor R is illustrated and discussed in connection with FIGS. 11, 12 and 13. In this situation the time "a" should have a positive value and should be added to the time of the interval "b" to give a proper indication of the mass flow flowing through the meter. It will be noted in FIG. 15 that in the situation where VOL leads VOR in window 2 and is immediately followed by the situation where VOL leads VOR in window 1, that the POS/NEG signal 124 goes to the low condition in window 1 as illustrated by waveform 124 between vertical lines 134 and 135. However, the computer does not interrogate the level of the POS/NEG waveform 124 until the end of time "c" when the DATAREADY signal 122 goes to the high condition. At this point, illustrated at 145 in FIG. 15, the POS/NEG signal 124 has returned to the high condition. Thus, when the microprocessor of the preferred embodiment is ready to accept the time interval "a" of the .phi. signal 121 between the vertical lines 134 and 135 this interrogation takes place after 145 when the POS/NEG signal 124 is in its high condition thereby giving the value of time interval "a" between vertical lines 134 and 135 a positive value.

At the beginning of window 2, shown at vertical line 136, the VOL voltage 115 drops to a low condition causing W2L signal 117 to go to a high condition and W1L signal 118 to go to a low condition. The new high condition of the W2L signal 117 is input into the clock of flip flop 82 resulting in the Q output of flip flop 82 going to a low condition. This low condition input with the high condition of the Q output of flip flop 83 into NAND gate 93 causes the output of NAND gate 93 to go to the high condition causing the previously discussed pulse from RC circuit 94 which in turn resets the Q outputs of flip flops 78 and 79 to the high condition. The negative going pulse output from inverter 95 also is input into the A2 terminal of the one shot device 96 causing the DATAREADY signal 122 to go to the low condition for the predetermined time "c."

The previous low condition of the Q output of flip flop 86 input with the new low condition of NAND gate 90 into AND gate 106, and the previous low condition of Q of flip flop 87 input into AND gate 107 with the new high condition of the output of NAND gate 93 causes the outputs of AND gates 106 and 107 to remain in a low condition and therefore the output of NOR gate 108 remaining in the high condition. Thus the POS/NEG signal 124 remains in the high condition.

The .phi. signal 121 goes to the high condition as previously discussed in connection with vertical line 132.

At the end of window 2, illustrated at vertical line 137, the .phi. signal 121 drops to its low condition and the other signals remain the same as previously discussed in connection with vertical line 133. One change in the settings of the elements of FIG. 14 at vertical line 137 from that discussed in connection with the setting of the elements at vertical line 133, is that the Q output of flip flop 86 is in the low condition. In this situation the output of AND gate 106 will still remain in the low condition as the inputs to AND gate 106 are both in the low condition. The inputs into NOR gate 108 at vertical line 137 is a low output from AND gate 106 and a low output from NAND gate 107 thus maintaining the POS/NEG signal 124 in the high condition.

Shown in FIG. 15 between vertical lines 138 and 141 is the situation wherein the voltage output VOR from the right sensor R leads the voltage output wave VOL from the left sensor L in both the leading and trailing edges of the waves 115 and 116. This condition could arise for instance wherein external vibrations or other forces would apply torque to the tubes to cause an error, or where the flow through the meter would be in the reverse direction from that previously discussed such that the right sensor would come on earlier with increasing mass flow. In the normal flow of the material through the meter as previously discussed, it can be seen that the voltage output form VOL shifts in the leftward direction with increasing mass flow with respect to voltage output wave VOR. However, if the flow direction is reversed, the waveform VOL would shift in the rightward direction with respect to the waveform VOR with increasing mass flow.

In the situation illustrated at vertical line 138, the W2R waveform 119 would to to the low condition and the W1R waveform 120 would go to the high condition. The new high condition of W1R would be applied to the clock of flip flop 86 making the Q output of flip flop 86 move to the high condition since the D terminal would be subjected to the low condition of the W1L waveform 118. The high condition of W1R would also be applied to the clock of flip flop 79 which would ultimately cause the Q outputs of flip flops 82 and 83 to be reset to the high condition as previously explained. The setting of the Q output of flip flop 79 to the low condition would also trigger the one shot device 96 by applying a logical zero to the A1 input as previously explained.

As previously discussed, the output of the exclusive OR gates 99 and 100 would move to the high condition and if followed through the elements of FIG. 14 in the manner previously discussed it will be understood by one skilled in the art that the .phi. signal 121 would move to the high condition and the W2/W1 would be changed to the low condition responsive to the output of NAND gate 93.

The input to AND gate 106 would be the new high of the Q output of flip flop 86 and the new high of the NAND gate output 90 such that the output of AND gate 106 would be high. The input to AND gate 107 would be the low of the Q output of flip flop 87 and the new low of the output of NAND gate 93 resulting in an output of the AND gate 107 to be in the low condition. With the inputs of NOR gate 108 thus being a high and a low, the output of NOR gate 108 would move to the low condition. This would result in the POS/NEG signal 124 going to the low condition as shown at the vertical line 138.

At the end of window 1 shown at vertical line 139, the W2L signal 117 would go to the low condition and the W1L signal 118 would go to the high condition. As previously discussed in connection with vertical line 131, the output of exclusive OR gate 99 would move to the low condition causing the output of NAND gate 101 to move to the high condition in turn switching the output of NAND gate 103 to the low condition thereby causing the .phi. signal 121 to move to the low condition as illustrated at vertical line 139. As previously discussed in connection with vertical line 131, the other elements of FIG. 14 would not be switched. Thus, the W2/W1 signal 123 and the POS/NEG signal 124 would both remain in the low condition at vertical line 139.

When the VOR signal from the right sensor R moves to the low condition as shown at vertical line 140, the W2R signal 119 moves to the high condition and the W1R signal 120 moves to the low condition. The new high of W2R to the clock of flip flop 83 causes the Q output of flip flop 83 to move to the low condition which, when joined with the high output of the Q of flip flop 82, causes the output of NAND gate 93 to move to the high condition. This high condition causes a positive going pulse in RC circuit 94 which is inverted by inverter 95 to reset the Q outputs of flip flops 78 and 79 to the high condition and to fire the one shot device 96 for the "c" time illustrated as starting at vertical line 140 in waveform 122.

The W2/W1 signal 123 will move to the high condition responsive to the output of NAND gate 93 and indicates that the trailing edge of the voltage output waveforms VOL and VOR is being processed.

The reset high Q outputs of flip flops 78 and 79 cause a low output from NAND gate 90 which, when joined with the high output of flip flop 86, cause the output of AND gate 106 to go to the low condition. The input to AND gate 107 will be the new high condition of NAND gate 93 and the new high condition of flip flop 87 which is caused by inputting the logical one of the W2R signal into the clock of flip flop 87 when the W2L voltage is at a low condition. These two high inputs to AND gate 107 cause the output of AND gate 107 to go to the high condition which, when joined with the new low condition of AND gate 106, maintains the output of the NOR gate 108 in the low condition. Thus the POS/NEG signal 124 remains in the low condition at vertical line 140.

As previously discussed in connection with vertical line 133, the outputs of exclusive OR gates 99 and 100 go to the high condition. The output of NAND gate 101 goes to the low condition responsive to the low input from NAND gate 90 and the high input from exclusive OR gate 99. Also, the output of NAND gate 102 goes to the low condition responsive to the high output of OR gate 100 and the high output of NAND gate 93. Responsive to these low outputs of NAND gates 101 and 102, the output of NAND gate 103 goes to the high condition causing the .phi. waveform 121 to go to the high condition at vertical line 140.

When the VOL waveform 115 move to the low condition at vertical line 141, the positive edge of the high of W2L applied to the clock of flip flop 82 will cause the Q output of the flip flop 82 to move to the low condition. This new low condition is joined with the low condition of flip flop 83 in NAND gate 93 to maintain the output of NAND gate 93 in the high condition. Thus it will be understood that the POS/NEG signal 124 will remain in the low condition and the W2/W1 signal 123 will remain in the high condition. The output of exclusive OR gates 99 and 100 will move to the low condition which, when joined with the low output of NAND gate 90 in NAND gate 101 and the high output of NAND gate 93 in NAND gate 102, will cause the outputs of both NAND gates 101 and 102 to move to the high condition. When these high outputs are input into NAND gate 103, the output of NAND gate 103 will move to the low condition as illustrated in the switching of the .phi. signal 121 to the low condition at vertical line 140.

At the end of the DATAREADY pulse after time "c," the microprocessor will poll the status of the W2/W1 signal 123 and the status of the POS/NEG signal 124 and assign a negative value to the time "b" that the .phi. signal was in the high condition between vertical lines 140 and 141. It can thus be seen that the times "a" and "b" of the .phi. signal 121 between vertical lines 138 and 141 will be assigned a negative value which, when summed together, will give a negative number. This negative number is recognized by the microprocessor as being an error and may either be ignored or treated by the microprocessor as a flow in the reverse direction.

An appropriate switching means could be made available to the microprocessor to indicate that the flow of material through the flowmeter is in the opposite direction such that when the VOL waveform moves rightwardly with respect to the VOR waveform as illustrated in the waveforms between vertical lines 138 and 141 the microprocessor will add the time "a" of the .phi. signal 121 between vertical lines 138 and 139 to the time "b" of the .phi. signal 121 between vertical lines 140 and 141 to give a positive number. If such an indicating means were set to indicate that the flow was in the reverse direction such that the right sensor came on earlier with increasing mass flow and the right sensor R turned on before the left sensor L during window 1 and the left sensor L turned off before the right sensor R in the window 2, the time interval between the turning off of the two sensors in window 2 would be subtracted from the time interval between the turning on of the two sensors in window 1. Thus, such an indicating means would provide a flowmeter which would register flow in either direction depending upon the setting of the indicating means and which would ignore errors caused by external torque applied to the flow tubes such that the voltage waveforms VOL and VOR shifted in the wrong directions.

The discriminator circuit 70 of FIG. 14 is set to go to the high condition after the voltage wave 115 of the left sensor L increases past the nonlinear portion of the sensor's operating characteristics as shown at point 125 in FIG. 15. Similarly, the discriminator circuit 71 of FIG. 14 is designed to go to the high condition after the voltage wave 116 has increased to a predetermined point as shown at 126 of FIG. 15. Discriminators 70 and 71 thus ensure that the W2L waveform 117, the W1L waveform 118, the W2R waveform 119, and the W1R waveform 120 are not produced until the voltage waveforms 115 and 116 have passed their nonlinear portions to increase the accuracy and repeatability of the waveforms 117, 118, 119 and 120.

As previously explained, the time interval between the passing of the left and right sides of a loop in the flowmeter is not dependent upon natural frequency of the loops 11 and 16, or the amplitude of the vibrations caused by the vibrating means 30. However, it has been found that the slope of the curve of the output of the right and left sensors R and L respectively are affected by the velocity of the blades 23 and 25 as they turn the sensors 24 and 26 on and off. An automatic gain control circuit controlled by the center sensor 35 is included to control the amplitude of vibrations of the loops 11 and 16 as caused by the vibrating means 30. This amplitude control prevents the excursion of the loops 11 and 16 from getting so large as to cause mechanical hitting of the parts of the apparatus, and to prevent the excursion from getting so small that the slope of the output of sensors L and R are overly affected by drift in the interrupter modules of the sensors. This center sensor 35 could be removed and replaced, for instance, by other peak detecting means as is known in the art.

FIG. 16 is a schematic diagram of the electronics of the flowmeter and includes an auto zero circuit 150, a clock and counter circuit 152, a microprocessor 151, a memory 153, full scale input switches 154, a flow window limit input means 155, and a meter factor input means 156. The electronics also include an output frequency counter 175, and an automatic gain control and coil driver circuit 182. The auto zero circuit 150 may be that described in connection with FIG. 14.

The VOL signal 115 from the left sensor L is provided to the auto zero circuit 150 over conductor 160. The VOR signal 116 from the right sensor R is provided to the auto zero circuit 150 over conductor 161. The processing of these signals is discussed in connection with FIGS. 14 and 15.

The W2/W1 signal 123 is provided by the auto zero circuit 150 to the microprocessor 151 over conductor 162. The POS/NEG signal 124 is provided from the auto zero circuit 150 to the microprocessor 151 over conductor 163.

The .phi. signal 121 is provided by the auto zero circuit 150 to the clock and counter circuit 152 over conductor 164. The DATAREADY signal 122 is provided by the auto zero circuit to the microprocessor 151 over conductor 166 and to the clock and counter circuit 152 over conductor 165.

The DATAREADY signal 122 enables the clock and counter circuit 152 to "and" the .phi. signal 121 with a clock signal, for instance a 100 megahertz oscillator. This will result in a burst of pulses having a frequency of 100 megahertz for a duration having a time width of either time "a" or time "b" as previously discussed.

These pulses are counted by an appropriate counter and stored in a register 157 in clock and counter circuit 152. At the end of time "c", at for instance 143, the mentioned pulses have been counted and their total is stored in the register 157, and the DATAREADY signal 122 goes to a high. This high enables the microprocessor 151 to read the data in the register 157, over a parallel data bus 167.

After the data has been transmitted by the data bus 167, the microprocessor 151 clears the counter register 157 by sending a reset signal to the register 157 over an appropriate reset conductor 169. Circuit 152 is then prepared to count the time of the next pulse of the .phi. signal 121.

If the number of pulses is larger than register 157 can hold, an overflow signal is sent over conductor 168 with the data on data bus 167. The microprocessor 151 will indicate this overflow condition as will be discussed in connection with the software of FIGS. 17a and 17b.

The W2/W1 signal 123 received over conductor 162 indicates to the microprocessor 151 whether the count received over data bus 167 occurred in window 1 or window 2, and the POS/NEG signal 124 received over conductor 163 instructs the microprocessor 151 whether the count received over data bus 167 has a positive or a negative value.

The microprocessor 151 is controlled by a set of programmed instructions which reside in memory 153. A set of binary full scale input switches 154 provide a binary signal to the microprocessor 151 at appropriate times, as controlled by the program in memory 153, transmitting the time difference value which would result in a full scale reading in a rate meter attached to the output frequency counter 175. A set of flow window input switches 155 instruct the microprocessor 151, at appropriate times as controlled by the program in memory 153, the limits of the flow window to be used with the input data. For instance, in one preferred embodiment the flow window switches 155 have three settings of either 25%, 50% or 75%. If the 50% setting, for instance, is selected this means that the combined time count of times "a" and "b" must have a deviation of less than 50% from a set number of previous readings in order for the combined time count to be accepted by the microprocessor as good data. If the new combined count determined by the microprocessor deviates more than 50% from the set number of previous readings, the present number is ignored and the output is not changed until an acceptable reading is received. If the new input is rejected a set number of times, the microprocessor accepts the next count without the mentioned flow window check.

To display the mass flow in engineering units, a set of meter factor switches 156 may be included to enter a full scale flow, such as pounds per minute, corresponding to the full scale time as input by 154.

The output from the microprocessor 151 to the output frequency counter 175 includes a set/reset signal bus 170, an overflow signal bus 171, a parallel digital output bus 172, and a reverse flow signal conductor 173.

A signal from signal bus 170 will enable the output frequency counter circuit 175 to receive a count from output bus 172. A second signal from bus 170 will cause the number received from output bus 172 to be converted to a frequency output having a frequency determined by the value of the binary number of bus 172 and compatible with a standard flow meter rate and totalizer (not shown). Such an instrument requires an input signal having a frequency of from 0 to 1 kilohertz, and is available, for instance, from the Special Products Division of Halliburton Services of Duncan, Oklahoma under the designation of LO-II flow totalizer.

If the microprocessor 151 determines that an overflow condition exists, an overflow signal is sent to the output frequency counter 175 over conductor 171. This causes the output frequency counter 175 to transmit a 1 kilohertz signal over line 176, and to turn on an overflow indicator over conductor 177.

If the microprocessor 151 determines that the flow through the meter is in the reverse direction, a reverse flow indication signal may be transmitted over conductor 173. This signal may be used to turn on an indicator to indicate reverse flow, or may cause the reading of an appropriate totalizer to count down to indicate the net flow through the meter, or both. One preferred embodiment may operate appropriate safety devices to stop all flow where reverse flow is not desired for the particular application of the meter.

The voltage output VOC of the center interrupter module 35 is supplied over conductor 180 to the AGC coil driver circuit 182. An output signal from a sense coil 33 is provided over conductor 181 to AGC driver circuit 182. This sense coil would provide a signal responsive to the vibrations caused by vibrating means 30 and may be provided by a separate sense coil 33 around pole piece 31. The gain of circuit 182 would be controlled by the signal 181 from sense coil 33, and the on/off signal from interrupter module 35, to control the signal provided to drive coil 32 over conductor 183 such that the amplitude of the vibrations of vibrator means 30 is held at a constant value. The controlling of the vibrations of loops 14 and 16 ensures that mechanical nonlinearities are not introduced due to hitting of mechanical parts, and a minimum amplitude is maintained such that the time delays due to coriolis acceleration may be measured with sufficient accuracy. The coil driver circuit 182 may also be controlled by the signal from sense coil 33 provided over conductor 181 such that the signal to drive coil 32 over conductor 183 is supplied in resonance with the natural vibrating frequency of the tuning fork formed by loops 11 and 16 as is known in the art.

A microprocessor suitable for the microprocessor 151 is the 8080 microprocessor of the Intel Corporation of Sant Clara, California. The 8080 microprocessor may be programmed in accordance with the 8085 instruction set discussed at pages 3-12 through 3-28 of the MCS-85 User's Manual 98-366C published by Intel Corporation and dated June 1977.

Shown in FIGS. 17a and 17b is a flow chart for the program listing of Table I. The line numbers referred to in this discussion refer to the line numbers found in the first column of Table I.

The program which is stored in the memory 153 for use by the microprocessor 151 of FIG. 16 is composed of a main program labeled system flow and listed at line 00001 through line 00139; a subroutine labeled RDHOLD for reading the threshold and listed from line 00091 through line 00139; and subroutine labeled RDFUSC for reading the full scale switch and listed at line 00140 through line 00153; a subroutine labeled EVAL for calculating limits and listed at line 00217 through line 00433; a subroutine labeled GTDATA for getting three bytes of data and averaging, and listed at line 00434 through line 00634 and shown within the dotted lines labeled 300 in FIGS. 17a and 17b; a subroutine labeled COMPAR for finding a 19 bit average less than full scale and listed at line 00635 through line 00663; and an output subroutine labeled COMPUT as shown at line 00664 through line 00908, all of Table I. The bytes rightshift subroutine labeled RSH 3BY at lines 00200 through 00212 is used in several of the other routines in the program listing.

The main routine at 200 initializes the registers in the program and clears all buffers such as shown in line 00003 through line 00018 of the program. This clearing routine includes clearing the counter 157 at lines 00003 and 00004 and resetting the output frequency counter 175 at lines 00005 and 00006 of the program listing. Line 00003 is labeled START and line 00007 is labeled RESTA for later use by the program, and are shown at 201 and 203 of FIG. 17a respectively.

After the initialization routine 200, program statement line 00019 labeled MRDATA calls the GTDATA subroutine 300. Line 00019 is shown at 202 in FIG. 17a.

In the GTDATA routine the program sets the variable SUM equal to zero, resets the window 1 flag and sets the count variable CNT equal to zero at line numbers 00439 through line 00443. At 207 the program checks the DATA-READY signal 122 transmitted to the microprocessor 151 by conductor 166 and returns to the statement labeled TRYAG until the DATAREADY signal 122 is in the high condition. This check is shown at lines 00444 through 00446 of the program.

After the auto zero circuit 150 indicates that data is ready, the program at 209 checks to see if the data to be received is in window 1. This check is made at lines 00450 through 00452 and checks the W2/W1 signal 123 to see if it is in the high or low condition. If the check indicates that the data received is not in window 1, the program resets the counter register 157 at 210 by transmitting a reset command over conductor 169, and transfers the program back to the statement OVERFL at 206. This is done at lines 00453 and 00454 of the program.

If the check at 209 indicates that the data received is in window 1, the window 1 flag is set at 211, program statement 00462, and the POS/NEG signal 124 is checked at 212, program lines 00463 and 00464, to determine if the data should have a negative or positive value. If the POS/NEG signal 124 indicates that the data should have a negative value, the input data is read and the data is given a negative value at 213, program lines 00466 through 00479. If the check at 212 indicates that the data should have a positive value, the data is read at 214, program lines 00506 through 00516. After the data is acquired at either 213 or 214, the count variable CNT is incremented by one at 215, program lines 00480 through 00481.

At 216, program lines 00482 through 00484, the count variable CNT is checked to see if it has reached 5. If it has not, the variable SUM is increased by the value of the data read at 213 or 214 with its appropriate sign. This addition is accomplished by the routine ADD20B shown at lines 00595 through 00634 of the program listing.

The number of passes through check 216 may be varied as desired. For instance in one preferred embodiment of the invention, an input is provided to the microprocessor 151 such that the number of counts may be changed as desired for the size of the meter whose data is being processed by the electronics of FIG. 16. This count and the resulting average, to be discussed later, has the effect of averaging out any variation over several cycles to provide a smoother output.

After the data is summed at 217, the counter 157 is reset at 218, program line 00521. The DATAREADY signal 122 is then checked and rechecked at 219 until the DATAREADY signal 122 goes high to indicate that there is data to be received from register 157. This check is done at program lines 00522 through 00524. The program at 222, program lines 00525 through 00527, then checks the signal W2/W1 123 to see if the meter is in the window 1 or window 2 condition. If the W2/W1 signal 123 does not indicate a window 2, the program, at lines 00561 and 00562, goes through an error routine 221 to the OVERFL statement 206, at program line 00569, to start the GTDATA routine over. The error routine 221 outputs an overflow signal at program line 00562 to indicate that an error has occurred.

If the signal 123 indicates that the meter is in a window 2 condition, the POS/NEG signal 124 is checked to see if the data should receive a positive or negative value.

If check 222 indicates that the data has a negative value, the program at 228, program lines 00531 through 00540, receives the data from register 157 over bus 167 and gives the data a negative value. This negative data is then added to the variable SUM at 229, program statement 00545, and the register 157 is reset at 230, program line 00546. The program then transfers back to the TRYAG statement 208 by statement number 00547 to continue collecting data for the number of cycles specified in check 216.

If the check at 222 indicates that the data should have a positive value, the data is acquired at 223, program lines 00548 through 00557, and the data is added to the variable SUM at 224, program line 00558, the counter 157 is reset at 225, program statement 00559, and program transfers back to statement TRYAG 208 at program statement 00560.

If the check at 216 indicates that the count variable CNT has been incremented to 5, the program goes to the clear window 1 flag instruction 240 at program statement 00485. It will be understood by those skilled in the art that a total of 4 vibration cycles of the loops 11 and 16 will have occurred between each true response of the check 216.

A check is made at 241, program lines 00487 through 00488, to see if the variable SUM has a negative value. In the embodiment shown in FIG. 17b, if the sum is negative the program transfers to the OVERFL statement 206 and the program begins to collect a new set of data.

In another embodiment, a reverse flow signal may be output by microprocessor 151 over conductor 173 and the program would transfer to the average sum routine 244.

If the check at 241 indicates that the variable SUM is not negative, the program transfers to the average sum routine 244, program statements 00490 through 00505, and averages the value for the specified number of times of check 216. In the embodiment of the program illustrated by FIGS. 17a and 17b, the average time shift caused by the coriolis forces on loops 11 and 16 as corrected by the auto zero circuit 150 would be determined by dividing the variable SUM by 8.

The program then transfers out of the GTDATA routine 300 and back to the mainline program to determine at check 245, program statements 00023 through 00025, if this is the first time the program has passed this point during this loop.

If the check at 245 is yes, the program passes to 249 to get the threshold values for the flow window calculations. At this point, statement number 00029, the values from the flow window switches 155 are read by the microprocessor 151 in the subroutine RDHOLD as shown at statements 00091 through 00139 of the program listing. After reading the flow window switches 155, the program goes to 250, statement number 00030, to read the full scale switches 154. The full scale switches 154 are read by the microprocessor in the RDFUSC subroutine as listed in lines 00140 through 00153 of the program listing.

The program then evaluates the average determined at 244 as a percent of full scale by calling, at line number 00031, the COMPAR subroutine as listed in statements 00635 through 00663 of the program listing. At 252, statement numbers 00032 through 00034, a check is made to determine if the average is less than full scale. If the average is greater than full scale, the program turns on the overflow light at 253, statement numbers 00035 and 00036, and returns to the start statement 201 as executed at statement number 00037 of the program listing.

If the check at 252 determines that the average value is less than full scale, the average value is output to the frequency counter at 255, line numbers 00044 through 00070 of the program listing, which is accomplished by calling the COMPUT subroutine listed in line numbers 00664 through 00908 of the listing. After outputting the average value as a percent of full scale, the program returns to statement MRDATA 202 as executed in statement number 00071 of the listing.

If at 245 the check indicates that this is not the first time through the loop, the program transfers to 246 to calculate the flow window limits of one of 25%, 50% or 75% as determined by the threshold limits read from the flow window input 155 in the previous pass. This is done by calling at statement 00075 the subroutine EVAL as listed in lines 00217 to 00433 of the program listing. After the proper limits are calculated for the flow window, the average value determined at 244 is checked with the calculated limits of 246 in the check 247 as shown in statements 00079 through 00089 of the program listing. If the average value is within the limits of the flow window, control is transferred back to the get threshold statement 249 for reading the flow window input 155 for use in the next pass. If the average is outside the limits of the flow window as determined by check 247, the program transfers back to the RESTA statement 203 at either line number 00086 or 00089.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the flow window input 155 may be changed at any time during the operation of the program and the new flow window values will be read in the next pass of the software through the get threshold routine 249. The program could be altered by going from the true branch of the in limits check 247 to the get full scale switch routine 250 such that the flow window input 155 is read only on each first pass.

it will also be understood by those skilled in the art that the flow window limits are checked only on every other pass through check 245. It will be understood that an additional check could be included in the subroutine such that the flow window could be checked for a desired number of times through this loop, and a new average calculated if the value is not within the limits of check 247. However, after a set number of passes through the in limits of check 247, the program should be transferred to the output branch represented by routines 249, 250, 251, 252 and 255 to prevent the flowmeter output from being held at a particular value if the mass flow through the meter is actually changing fast enough such that the average value calculated at 244 does differ from the previous value sufficiently that the new average is outside the limits of the in limit check 247.

In the illustrated embodiment the in limits check 247 is only made one time out of every two passes. As explained, the subroutine may be altered by one skilled in the art such that more passes could be made, if desired, before a new average is output to the frequency counter without comparing it to the flow window limits.

If the overflow conductor 168 is turned on because the register 157 in the clock and counter circuit 152 is not able to hold the count, this turned on conductor 168 may be included with the counter value received over data bus 167 such that the microprocessor reads the counter value in the get data routines 213, 214, 228, or 223 as a very large number. This large number would be evaluated at check 252 such that the average would be larger than full scale to thus turn on the overflow light at 253 and return the program to the start statement 201 to read a new set of data.

If the full scale input switches at 154 input a full scale value which is smaller than the actual mass flow being read by the meter, the average sum calculated at 244 will also be larger than the full scale check at 252 resulting in the overflow light being turned on at 253. If the frequency counter 175 receives an overflow command over conductor 171 as instructed by the turn on light routine 253, the output frequency counter 175 is designed to transmit a maximum frequency of 1 kilohertz over the output line 176 and to turn on the overflow line 177.

It will be seen at line number 00045 that the overflow indicator is reset each time a valid value is output at 255 to the output frequency counter 175.

In another preferred embodiment of the invention, the flow window input 155 and the flow window evaluation and checks as represented by routines 245, 246, 247, and 249 of FIG. 17b may be eliminated, and the averaging routines of the program may be relied upon to average out any high and low readings. If the flow window routines are eliminated, the size of the program may be reduced such that a different microprocessor such as an 8048 may be used for microprocessor 151. If the 8048 microprocessor is used, its on-board memory may be used in place of the external memory 153.

The embodiments of the invention discussed herein are intended to be illustrative only. The attached claims are intended to cover the disclosed embodiments and their equivalents. ##SPC1## ##SPC2## ##SPC3##

Claims

1. In a mass flow rate meter of the coriolis force type having a support, a U-shaped tube including two side legs joined by a cross member with the free ends of the side legs attached to said support and forming an inlet and an outlet for flowable material flowing through said U-shaped tube, and a means for vibrating the bight end of said U-shaped tube perpendicular to the plane of the U-shaped tube, the improvement comprising:

sensor means on each of the side legs of said U-shaped tube for sensing the time difference between one of the legs crossing a predetermined point in the path of the oscillation caused by said vibrating means and the other of the legs crossing said predetermined point of oscillation for giving an indication of the mass flow of the material flowing through said U-shaped tube;

indicating means in said sensor means for indicating the first side leg to cross said predetermined point of oscillation; and

selecting means responsive to said indicating means for selecting one of giving a time representation equal to the sum of the time difference between crossing of said predetermined point of oscillation of said legs during the previous half cycle of oscillation and the time difference for crossing said predetermined point during the present half cycle, and giving a time representation equal to the absolute value of the subtraction of the time difference between crossing of said predetermined point of oscillation of said legs during the previous half cycle of oscillation from the time difference during the present half cycle depending on said side leg which crosses said predetermined point of oscillation first, thereby giving an indication of the mass flow of the material flowing through said U-shaped tube.

2. The mass flow rate meter of claim 1 further comprising:

averaging means responsive to said selecting means for providing a signal indicating the average of a plurality of time representations from said selecting means for a predetermined number of cycles;

rejecting means responsive to said averaging means for rejecting time representations having a predetermined variance from said averaging means signal;

adjustable means for adjusting the level of said predetermined variance of said rejecting means; and

output means providing a signal proportionate to unrejected ones of said time representations of representing the mass flow of material flowing through said U-shaped tube.

3. The mass flow rate meter of claim 1 further comprising:

optical sensor means symmetrically located on each of the side legs of said U-shaped tube each for generating a generally square shaped wave when the optical sensor means is switched between the on and off positions, the generally square shaped wave of one optical sensor means having a rising edge and a falling edge substantially parallel to the rising edge and falling edge of the other optical sensor means;

amplitude controlling means for controlling the amplitude imparted by the vibrating means to the U-shaped tube;

amplitude discriminator means for providing indications when the generally square shaped wave of each optical sensor means rises above a predetermined point and falls below a predetermined point; and

timing means for measuring the time between successive indications from said discriminator means during the rising of said generally square shaped wave of one optical sensor means from the rising of said generally square shaped wave of the other optical sensor means, and for measuring the time between successive indications from said discriminator means during the falling of said generally square shaped wave of one optical sensor means from the falling of said generally square shaped wave of the other optical sensor means.

4. The mass flow rate meter of claim 1 further comprising:

averaging means responsive to said selecting means for providing a signal indicating a plurality of time representations from said selecting means for a predetermined number of cycles; and

variable means for selecting a number of cycles in the plurality of time representations of said selecting means for use by the averaging means.

5. The mass flow rate meter of claim 1 further comprising:

means responsive to said selecting means for giving an indication representative of the direction of flow of mass through said mass flowmeter.

6. In a mass flow rate meter of the coriolis force type having a support, a U-shaped tube including a first side leg and a second side leg joined by a cross member with the free end of the side legs attached to said support and forming an inlet and outlet for flowable material flowing through said U-shaped tube, and a means for vibrating the bight end of said U-shaped tube perpendicular to the plane of the U-shaped tube, the improvement comprising:

sensor means on each of the side legs of said U-shaped tube for sensing the time difference between one of the legs crossing a predetermined point in the path of the oscillation caused by said vibrating means and the other of the legs crossing said predetermined point of oscillation for giving an indication of the mass flow of the material flowing through said U-shaped tube;

indicating means in said sensor means for indicating which of said first side leg and said second side leg crosses said predetermined point of oscillation before the other;

means responsive to said indicating means for assigning a negative value to said time difference if said first side leg crosses said predetermined point of oscillation before said second side leg, and for assigning a positive value to said time difference if said second side leg crosses said predetermined point of oscillation prior to said first side leg;

means for algebraically adding the time difference of one half cycle of oscillation with its assigned value together with the time difference of a succeeding half cycle of oscillation with its assigned value; and output means responsive to the sign of the sum of said adding means for providing an indication of the direction of flow of the material through the flowmeter.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 further comprising means responsive to the absolute value of the sum of said adding means for providing an indication of the mass flow flowing through said meter.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 further comprising means responsive to said output means for terminating the flow of material through said flowmeter when the direction of flow through the flowmeter indicated by said output means is in an undesired direction.

9. In a mass flow rate meter of coriolis force type having a support, a U-shaped tube including a first side leg and a second side leg joined by a cross member with the free end of the side legs attached to said support and forming an inlet and outlet for flowable material flowing through said U-shaped tube, and a means for vibrating the bight end of said U-shaped tube perpendicular to the plane of the U-shaped tube, the method comprising:

sensing the time difference between one of the legs crossing a predetermined point in the path of the oscillation caused by said vibrating means and the other of the legs crossing said predetermined point of oscillation for giving an indication of the mass flow of the material flowing through said U-shaped tube;

providing an indication of which of said first side leg and said second side leg crosses said predetermined point of oscillation before the other;

responsive to said indication, performing one of assigning a negative value to said time difference if said first side leg crosses said predetermined point of oscillation before said second side leg, and assigning a positive value to said time difference if said second side leg crosses said predetermined point of oscillation prior to said first side leg;

algebraically adding the time difference of one half cycle of oscillation with its assigned value together with the time difference of a second succeeding half cycle of oscillation with its assigned value; and

responsive to the sign of the sum of said adding means, providing an indication of the mass flow of the material flowing through the flowmeter.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising determining the absolute value of the sum of said adding step and providing an indication of the mass flowing through said meter responsive to said sum.

11. The method of claim 9 further comprising terminating the flow of material through said flowmeter when the sign of the sum of said adding step indicates the flow through said flowmeter is in an undesired direction.

12. In a mass flow rate meter of the coriolis force type having a support, a U-shaped tube including two side legs joined by a cross member with the free ends of the side legs attached to said support and forming an inlet and an outlet for flowable material flowing through said U-shaped tube, and a means for vibrating the bight end of said U-shaped tube perpendicular to the plane of the U-shaped tube, the improvement comprising:

sensor means on each of the side legs of said U-shaped tube for sensing the time difference between one of the legs crossing a predetermined point in the path of the oscillation caused by said vibrating means and the other of the legs crossing said predetermined point of oscillation for giving an indication of the mass flow of the material flowing through said U-shaped tube;

indicating means in said sensor means for indicating the first side leg to cross said predetermined point of oscillation; and

selecting means responsive to said indicating means for selecting, dependent on the side leg which crosses said predetermined point of oscillation first, one of giving a time representation equal to the sum of the time difference sensed during the previous half cycle of oscillation and the time difference sensed during the present half cycle, and giving a time representation equal to the difference between the time difference sensed during the previous half cycle of oscillation and the time difference sensed during the present half cycle, thereby giving an indication of the mass flow of the material flowing through said U-shaped tube.

13. The mass flow rate meter of claim 12 further comprising:

averaging means responsive to said selecting means for providing a signal indicating the average of a plurality of time representations from said selecting means for a predetermined number of cycles,

rejecting means responsive to said averaging means for rejecting time representations having a predetermined variance from said averaging means signal,

adjustable means for adjusting the level of said predetermined variance of said rejecting means, and

output means for providing a signal proportionate to unrejected ones of said time representations for representing the mass flow of material flowing through said U-shaped tube.

14. The mass flow rate meter of claim 12 further comprising:

optical sensor means symmetrically located on each of the side legs of said U-shaped tube each for generating a generally square shaped wave when the optical sensor means is switched between the on and off positions, the generally square shaped wave of one optical sensor means having a rising edge and a falling edge substantially parallel to the rising edge and falling edge of the other optical sensor means;

amplitude controlling means for controlling the amplitude imparted by the vibrating means to the U-shaped tube;

amplitude discriminator means for providing indications when the generally square shaped wave of each optical sensor means rises above a predetermined point and falls below a predetermined point; and

timing means for measuring the time between successive indications from said discriminator means during the rising of said generally square shaped wave of one optical sensor means from the rising of said generally square shaped wave of the other optical sensor means, and for measuring the time between successive indications from said discriminator means during the falling of said generally square shaped wave of one optical sensor means from the falling of said generally square shaped wave of the other optical sensor means.

15. The mass flow rate meter of claim 12 further comprising:

averaging means responsive to said selecting means for providing a signal indicating a plurality of time representations from said selecting means for a predetermined number of cycles, and

variable means for selecting a number of cycles in the plurality of time representations of said selecting means for use by the averaging means.

16. The mass flow rate meter of claim 12 further comprising:

means responsive to said selecting means for giving an indication representative of the direction of flow of mass through said mass flowmeter.

17. In a mass flow rate meter of the coriolis force type having a support, a U-shaped tube including two side legs joined by a cross member with the free ends of the side legs attached to said support and forming an inlet and an outlet for flowable material flowing through said U-shaped tube, and a means for vibrating the bight end of said U-shaped tube perpendicular to the plane of the U-shaped tube, the method comprising:

sensing the time difference between one of the legs crossing a predetermined point in the path of the oscillation caused by said vibrating means and the other of the legs crossing said predetermined point oscillation for giving an indication of the mass flow of the material flowing through said U-shaped tube;

providing an indication of the first side leg to cross said predetermined point of oscillation; and

responsive to said indication, selecting one of giving a time representation equal to the sum of the time difference between crossing of said predetermined point of oscillation of said legs during the previous half cycle of oscillation and the time difference for crossing said predetermined point during the present half cycle, and giving a time representation equal to the absolute value of the subtraction of the time difference between crossing of said predetermined point of oscillation of said legs during the previous half cycle of oscillation from the time difference during the present half cycle depending on said side leg which crosses said predetermined point of oscillation first, thereby giving an indication of the mass flow of the material flowing through said U-shaped tube.

18. A mass flowmeter comprising:

a base;

two tubes formed in U-shaped loops with the free ends of the loops attached to said base such that the bight ends are cantilevered from said base, said loops further arranged with one loop positioned above the other loop such that when the loops are at rest, the sides and bight ends of the loops are aligned one above the other with the planes of the loops substantially parallel and in fork like relationship with said base;

vibrating means centered on the bight ends of the loop for alternately attracting and repelling the bight ends of the loops toward and away from one another respectively for inducing vibrations of the two loops like the tines of a tuning fork;

first and second sensor means symmetrically located on matching sides of the loops for alternately turning on and off as the sides of the loops alternately pass through a predetermined point during the vibrations induced by said vibrating means; said sensor means calibrated such that when the loops are at rest, the first sensor means is in the off condition and the second sensor means is in the on condition, the open ends of the loops being interconnected such that with flow in a normal direction through the loops and vibration induced in the loops, the second sensor means turns on earlier with increasing flow;

timing means for making a first time measurement between the turning on of the first and second sensor means during one half cycle of the vibration of the loops, and for making a second time measurement between the turning off of the first and second sensor means in an immediately following half cycle of the vibration of the loops;

calculation means for generating a signal including a first signal portion responsive to the order of turning on of said first and second sensor means having a first polarity when the first sensor means turns on before the second sensor means in said one half cycle of vibration and having a second opposite polarity when the second sensor means turns on before the first sensor means in said one half cycle of vibration, said circuit means signal further including a second signal portion responsive to the order of turning off of said first and second sensor means having said opposite polarity when the second sensor means turns off prior to the first sensor means in said following half cycle of vibration and having said first polarity when the first sensor means turns off prior to the second sensor means in said following half cycle of vibration;

adding means responsive to said circuit means signal for assigning a negative value to said first time measurement when said first signal portion has said first polarity, for assigning a positive value to said first time measurement when said first signal portion has said opposite polarity, for assigning a negative value to said second time measurement when said second signal portion has said first polarity, and for assigning a positive value to said second time measurement when said second signal portion has said opposite polarity; and

said adding means includes means for algebraically adding said first time measurement with its assigned value to said second time measurement with its assigned value for providing an indication of the mass flow of material flowing through said U-shaped tubes.

19. The flowmeter of claim 18 further comprising means responsive to the sign of the sum determined by said adding means for indicating the sign of said sum whereby the direction of flow of material through said flowmeter is indicated.

20. In a mass flow rate meter of the coriolis force type having a support, a U-shaped tube including two side legs joined by a cross member wth the free ends of the side legs attached to said support and forming an inlet and an outlet for flowable material flowing through said U-shaped tube, and a means for vibrating the bight end of said U-shaped tube perpendicular to the plane of the U-shaped tube, the method comprising:

sensing the time difference between one of the legs crossing a predetermined point in the path of the oscillation caused by said vibrating means and the other of the legs crossing said predetermined point of oscillation for giving an indication of the mass flow of the material flowing through said U-shaped tube; providing an indication of the first side leg to cross said predetermined point of oscillation; and

responsive to said indication, selecting one of giving a time representation equal to the sum of the time difference sensed during the previous half cycle of oscillation and the time difference sensed during the present half cycle, and giving a time representation equal to the difference between the time difference sensed during the previous half sycle of oscillation and the time difference sensed during the present half cycle, thereby giving an indication of the mass flow of the material flowing through said U-shaped tube.