Itron Patente

A single-transducer fluid meter is adapted to measurement the flow of a fluid (e.g., water or natural gas). A transducer sends an ultrasonic signal within a flow pipe through which the fluid flows within the fluid meter. In the example, the ultrasonic signal is reflected twice, thereby traveling in a triangular path that starts and ends at the transducer. A time-of-flight of an ultrasonic acoustic signal is measured. The time-of-flight starts when an electrical signal excites the transducer, and ends when the acoustic signal returns to the transducer. The time-of-flight of the ultrasonic signal can be used (with the speed-of-sound of the fluid) to calculate a flowrate of the fluid. In a first example, a faster flowrate of the fluid can result in a shorter time-of-flight (e.g., if the ultrasonic signal moves with the fluid flow). A slower flowrate of the fluid can result in a longer time-of-flight.

A multi-piece static fluid meter includes a register and a separate meter body. The register includes a first housing including a cavity which contains an ultrasonic transducer assembly and electronic component(s) of the static fluid meter. The meter body includes a second housing. When assembled, the first housing comprises a first portion of a flow passage and the second housing defines a second portion of the flow passage. The first and second housings can be formed of a thermoplastic and thermoplastically welded together. In some examples, one or more reflectors may be disposed in the flow passage and configured to reflect signals from the ultrasonic transducer assembly through a flow of water or other fluid to be measured. The register can include multiple mating surfaces configured to mate with different meter body configurations, allowing a single register design to be used with multiple meter body configurations.

The disclosure describes techniques for a fluid meter or other device to compensate for errors in ultrasonic flowrate measurement. In an example, a fluid meter measures a fluid (typically water) having an additive or impurity, such as glycol, or salt, respectively. When metering such a fluid, ultrasonic fluid metering devices may produce slightly inaccurate results. Accordingly, an adjustment factor, based on the fluid, the additive or impurity, and the temperature, would be desirable. In an example, the fluid (e.g., water and an additive or an impurity) and the temperature of the fluid are determined. The speed of sound through the fluid is measured, and mapped to a concentration (e.g., a percentage of the additive or impurity). The concentration is mapped to a viscosity, and the viscosity is mapped to the adjustment factor. The adjustment factor is used to adjust (or correct) a flowrate measured by an ultrasonic metrology device.

Detection and measurement of transient pressure events in a water (or other fluid) supply system are described herein. A water meter may have upstream and downstream piezo transducers that measure flowrate and overall water consumption. The transducers operate for very short periods (e.g., milliseconds) at intervals (e.g., a second). During the substantial periods during which the piezo transducers are not measuring flowrate, one of the transducers may be used to detect transient pressure events. An output signal of the transducer is compared to a pressure threshold to determine if a transient pressure event has occurred. The comparison may include either a number of times that the threshold was exceeded during a time period, or the time that the threshold was exceeded during the time period. If a transient pressure event was detected, a dedicated transient event sensor can be turned on to better assess the situation.

Techniques for allocating a load capacity to on-site smart sensors coupled to distributed energy resources (DERs) are described herein. For example, a primary smart sensor may receive, from a utility supplier (e.g., which may include a substation), a maximum load constraint associated with a network of smart utility sensors in an autonomous routing area. The maximum load constraint may be a maximum load and/or maximum capacity that the network of smart utility sensors may collectively operate with by a transformer carrying the load. In some examples, the primary smart sensor may receive utility data from the smart sensors and may determine a total transformer load associated with the transformer that is providing power to the network of smart utility sensors based at least in part on the utility data.

A battery-powered device (BPD) node compresses certificate chains to generate compressed certificate chains. The BPD node includes a compression dictionary that indexes various data entries that occur across many certificate chains and/or repeat within a particular certificate chain. The BPD node compresses a given certificate chain by replacing data entries within the given certificate chain with indices to corresponding data entries in the compression dictionary. The indices are smaller in size than the corresponding data entries. A neighboring BPD node also includes the compression dictionary and decompresses a compressed certificate chain by replacing indices included in the compressed certificate chain with the indexed data entries stored in the compression dictionary. Performing certificate exchanges with compressed certificate chains reduces the amount of limited battery power that is depleted during certificate exchanges, thereby extending BPD node operational lifetime and helping to prevent the need for premature battery replacement.

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