title: A bubble detection system for propellant filling pipeline.
abstract: This paper proposes a bubble detection system based on the ultrasound transmission method, mainly for probing high-speed bubbles in the satellite propellant filling pipeline. First, three common ultrasonic detection methods are compared and the ultrasound transmission method is used in this paper. Then, the ultrasound beam in a vertical pipe is investigated, suggesting that the width of the beam used for detection is usually smaller than the internal diameter of the pipe, which means that when bubbles move close to the pipe wall, they may escape from being detected. A special device is designed to solve this problem. It can generate the spiral flow to force all the bubbles to ascend along the central line of the pipe. In the end, experiments are implemented to evaluate the performance of this system. Bubbles of five different sizes are generated and detected. Experiment results show that the sizes and quantity of bubbles can be estimated by this system. Also, the bubbles of different radii can be distinguished from each other. The numerical relationship between the ultrasound attenuation and the bubble radius is acquired and it can be utilized for estimating the unknown bubble size and measuring the total bubble volume.
authors.affiliation: Robotics Institute, Beihang University, 100191 Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Wen
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wen
authors.affiliation: Robotics Institute, Beihang University, 100191 Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Guanghua
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zong
authors.affiliation: Robotics Institute, Beihang University, 100191 Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Shusheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bi