Claims
- 1. A method of determining the temperature throughout a multi-phase medium on the basis of speed of sound tomography, the steps comprising:
- establishing sectors throughout a cross-sectional portion of a multi-phase specimen;
- positioning ultrasonic transducers around the specimen such that multiple ultrasonic pulse flight paths traverse each established sector;
- transmitting multiple ultrasonic pulses by said ultrasonic transducers through each sector of the specimen;
- receiving said ultrasonic pulses which have travelled the established flight paths through said sectors of the specimen;
- identifying, measuring and recording the transit time of each ultrasonic pulse through said specimen;
- calculating the speed of sound through said sectors of the specimen;
- correlating a temperature in said sectors of the multi-phase specimen to said calculated speed of sound based upon established characteristics between speed of sound and temperature for said specimen.
- 2. The method of claim 1 wherein said ultrasonic pulse is in the frequency range of 20 kHz to 100 MHz.
- 3. The method of claim 1 wherein a computer is used to control the transmission and receipt of said ultrasonic pulses.
- 4. The method of claim 1 wherein said identifying, measuring and recording of the transit time of each ultrasonic pulse is performed by a computer.
- 5. The method of claim 1 wherein a computer is used to calculate the speed of sound through said sectors, said computer being programmed to correlate a temperature to said speed of sound for said specimen.
- 6. An apparatus for performing the method of ultrasonic tomography for in-process measurements of temperature in a multi-phase medium, comprising:
- a. transducer means for emitting multiple ultrasonic pulses through sectors of a multi-phase medium specimen;
- b. transducer means for receiving said multiple ultrasonic pulses;
- c. means for measuring and recording the transit time of said ultrasonic pulses through said sectors of the multi-phase medium specimen;
- d. means for determining the speed of sound through each sector and correlating said speed of sound to a temperature for any sector in the multi-phase medium specimen.
- 7. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein said transducer means for transmitting and receiving said ultrasonic pulses is controlled by a computer.
- 8. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein said means for measuring and recording transit times of said ultrasonic pulses is a computer.
- 9. The apparatus of claim 6 wherein said means for determining the speed of sound and correlating said speed of sound to a temperature is a computer which has been programmed with predetermined characteristics of the speed of sound and temperature through said specimen.
- 10. The apparatus of claim 6 further comprising means for the tomographical imaging of the speed of sound through said multi-phase medium specimen.
Government Interests
The United States Government has rights in this invention pursuant to Contract No. DE-AC07-76ID01570 between the U.S. Department of Energy and EG&G Idaho, Inc.
US Referenced Citations (24)
Foreign Referenced Citations (1)
Number |
Date |
Country |
134639 |
Jun 1986 |
JPX |
Non-Patent Literature Citations (1)
Entry |
C. Javanaud, "Applications of Ultrasound to Food Systems", Received 28 Apr. 1987; revised 18 Jan. 1988, pp. 117-123. |