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Title: Burst design and signal processing for the speed of sound measurement of fluids with the pulse-echo technique

Journal Article · · Review of Scientific Instruments
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4921478· OSTI ID:22392509
; ;  [1]
  1. Lehrstuhl für Thermodynamik und Energietechnik, Universität Paderborn, Warburger Straße 100, 33098 Paderborn (Germany)

The pulse-echo technique determines the propagation time of acoustic wave bursts in a fluid over a known propagation distance. It is limited by the signal quality of the received echoes of the acoustic wave bursts, which degrades with decreasing density of the fluid due to acoustic impedance and attenuation effects. Signal sampling is significantly improved in this work by burst design and signal processing such that a wider range of thermodynamic states can be investigated. Applying a Fourier transformation based digital filter on acoustic wave signals increases their signal-to-noise ratio and enhances their time and amplitude resolutions, improving the overall measurement accuracy. In addition, burst design leads to technical advantages for determining the propagation time due to the associated conditioning of the echo. It is shown that the according operation procedure enlarges the measuring range of the pulse-echo technique for supercritical argon and nitrogen at 300 K down to 5 MPa, where it was limited to around 20 MPa before.

OSTI ID:
22392509
Journal Information:
Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 86, Issue 5; Other Information: (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0034-6748
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English