CURRENT METER

• Main Authors: SHICHIRI MASATAKA, KABEUCHI TERUO, MUKONO KATSUHIKO
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 19.06.1990
• Subjects: MEASURING; MEASURING ELECTRIC VARIABLES; MEASURING MAGNETIC VARIABLES; MEASURING VOLUME, VOLUME FLOW, MASS FLOW OR LIQUIDLEVEL; METERING BY VOLUME; PHYSICS; TESTING

PURPOSE:To enable employment of a current meter without being restricted by the concentration of particles by a method wherein a shielding means to shield an optical path in accordance with a fluid pressure is provided on the optical path of each optical fiber. CONSTITUTION:On the occasion of detecting a flow velocity, a shielding means 7A receives the pressure of a fluid proceeding onto the downstream side of the direction of a flow, while a shielding means 7B receives the pressure of a fluid proceeding onto the upstream side of the direction of the flow. The fluid pressure applied to the means 7A is the sum of a static pressure and a dynamic pressure, while the fluid pressure applied to the means 7B is the static pressure alone. Therefore the degree of interception of the optical path of an optical fiber 6A by the means 7A is larger than the degree of interception of the optical path by the means 7B. The propagation efficiency of the fiber 6A for which the means 7A is provided is lower than the propagation efficiency of the fiber 6B for which the means 7B is provided, and in a light-sensing means, the quantity of light received by the fiber 6A is smaller than that of light received by the fiber 6B. Accordingly, when the quantity of light decreased in the fiber 6A is denoted by A and the quantity of light decreased in the fiber 6B by B, the direction of the flow can be detected by detecting the polarity of (A -B)/(A + B), and the velocity of the flow can be computed by determining the absolute value of the above.