Flow Pulse – A major advancement in non-invasive flow measurement

Pulsar Process Measurement Ltd. of Malvern have launched Flow Pulse, a compact and cost-effective pipe flow monitor that promises exceptional repeatability, accuracy and simple installation with no down time. Flow Pulse is perfect for monitoring flow rate in fluid distribution systems, for pump efficiency checks, in process plants of sewage pump stations.

Flow Pulse is a revolution in flow measurement – no need to break into a pipe, or to get any engineering involved, just clamp a small sensor to the outside of a pipe and immediately get a reliable, repeatable flow measurement (tools required = one screwdriver). Virtually no installation costs, no interruption to service, clean and simple.

Flow Pulse uses a novel spread spectrum analysis technique never before used in flow monitoring. It introduces a radical new Digital Signal Processing approach for exceptional repeatability:

Ultrasound is fired through the pipe wall at 90 degrees to the flow via a tangentially mounted high-output ceramic, then refracted at angles across the axis of the flow and subsequently reflected from bubbles, particles and vortices in all directions and at a wide range of frequencies. The wide, refracted, ultrasonic beam maximise the ultrasound energy that could be captured from flowing particles. These multiple reflections are received back into the unit via a second crystal.

The mass of data generated is analysed using Flow Pulse’s Refracted Spread Spectrum Analysis (RSSA) digital signal processing platform to derive flow information. RSSA analyses and integrates the received signals over a wide frequency range, then slices them for real-time analysis and flow rate calculation.

Flow Pulse operates in a flow range from as little as 0.3m/s through to 4m/s, with a minimum particle size of 100µ and concentration of 200ppm or above (the equivalent of hard water).

Pipe material can be rigid plastic, stainless steel, mild steel or cast iron. Corrugated pipe is not an issue and even light corrosion will give a good result. Flow Pulse provides repeatability of around ±5% (up to 350mm pipe dia).