JP4591249B2 - Flowmeter - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a flow meter provided with a device discriminating means for discriminating a device connected to a flow path and measuring the flow rate used for each device.

  Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 9, this type of flow rate measuring apparatus includes a gas flow rate measuring unit 51 that measures the flow rate of gas flowing in a gas flow path, and a flow rate increase detecting unit 52 that detects an increase in flow rate from the measurement result. The flow rate increase / decrease detecting means 53 for detecting the instantaneous increase / decrease change of the gas flow accompanying the increase of the flow rate, the instrument determining means 54 for determining the start of use of a new gas combustion instrument when the instantaneous increase / decrease change is detected, and the flow rate increase detecting means The flow rate registration means 55 for registering the increase in the gas flow rate detected in step 1 as the increase in the gas flow rate associated with the start of use of the new gas combustion appliance (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

With the above configuration, pay attention to the fact that the gas flow rate increases and decreases instantly when it starts to use a new gas combustion device, and it becomes a stable gas flow rate. By deciding, it is possible to determine the start of use of a new gas combustion appliance by a simple method, register the amount of gas increase due to the use of a new gas combustion appliance, and stop using it based on the decrease in flow rate Judgment.
JP 2002-174542 A

  However, in the conventional configuration, only the start and stop of use of one instrument can be determined, the gas flow rate used by the instrument cannot be measured, and the determination can be made when a plurality of instruments are used. There was a problem that it was difficult and the flow rate of each instrument could not be measured.

  In order to solve the conventional problems, a flow rate measuring device of the present invention includes a flow rate measuring unit for fluid, a flow rate information storing unit for storing at least one of a flow rate value and time information measured by the flow rate measuring unit, Instrument discriminating means for discriminating the usage status of the instrument connected to the downstream side of the flow rate measuring means based on the flow rate information storage means, and instrument-specific flow measurement for storing the fluid flow rate flowing through the instrument discriminated by the instrument discriminating means Means.

  This makes it possible to determine the appliance used based on the stored flow rate value and time information and to calculate the flow rate used by the appliance.

Flow rate measurement apparatus of the present invention includes a flow rate measuring means for fluid, the flow rate information storage means for storing the flow rate value and time information measured by the flow rate measuring means, the flow rate information when the plurality of appliances has started simultaneously used Appliance registration means for registering, an appliance for determining the usage status of the appliance connected to the downstream side of the flow rate measuring means based on the information stored in the flow rate information storage means and the flow rate information registered in the appliance registration means And determining a device used based on the stored flow rate value and time information by including a determining unit and a flow rate measuring unit for each device that stores the flow rate of the fluid that has flowed through the device determined by the device determining unit. The flow rate used by the device can be calculated, and the flow rate for each device can be integrated.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a flow rate measuring means based on the flow rate information storage means, a flow rate information storage means for storing at least one of a flow rate value and time information measured by the flow rate measurement means, and the flow rate information storage means By using a flow meter provided with an instrument discriminating means for discriminating the usage status of an instrument connected to the downstream side of the instrument, and an instrument-specific flow rate measuring means for storing the flow rate of the fluid flowing through the instrument discriminated by the instrument discriminating means, It is possible to discriminate a device that has been tried on the basis of the stored flow rate value and time information, to calculate the flow rate used by the device, and to make it possible to integrate the flow rate for each device.

  The second invention comprises an appliance registration means for registering the appliance information of the appliance connected to the flow path, and an appliance for determining the usage state of the appliance based on the information of the appliance registration means and the information on the flow rate information storage means By using the flowmeter according to claim 1, comprising: a discriminating unit and a per-apparatus flow rate measuring unit that calculates a flow rate used by the instrument. it can.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, the appliance discriminating means discriminates and uses the appliance by using the flow meter according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the appliance usage status is discriminated using the instantaneous flow rate at specific time intervals. The flow rate of the appliance can be calculated.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, the appliance discriminating means discriminates according to the time until the stable operation is reached. Can be possible.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, the appliance discriminating means discriminates based on the presence or absence of a decrease in the flow rate until reaching a stable operation. The flow rate can be calculated.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the appliance discriminating means discriminates the flow meter according to any one of claims 1 to 3 that discriminates based on an average flow rate value during stable operation, whereby highly accurate appliance discrimination and appliance-specific flow rate calculation are performed. Can be possible.

  According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, the appliance discriminating means discriminates the flow meter according to any one of claims 1 to 3 that discriminates based on the flow rate fluctuation width during stable operation, thereby enabling highly accurate appliance discrimination and appliance-specific flow rate calculation. Can be possible.

  According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, the appliance discriminating means discriminates according to the presence or absence of a change in the flow rate rising gradient until reaching a stable operation. It is possible to calculate the flow rate for each appliance.

  According to a ninth aspect of the invention, the appliance discriminating means discriminates based on information when a plurality of appliances registered in the appliance registration means start to be used at the same time. High device discrimination and flow rate calculation by device can be made possible.

  According to a tenth aspect of the present invention, the appliance discriminating means discriminates the stoppage of use of the appliance by a predetermined flow rate reduction. By using the flowmeter according to any one of claims 1 to 3, highly accurate appliance discrimination and appliance-specific flow calculation Can be made possible.

  In an eleventh aspect of the invention, the appliance discrimination means is added by a learning function, and the flowmeter according to any one of claims 1 to 3 enables high-precision appliance discrimination and appliance-specific flow rate calculation. be able to.

According to a twelfth aspect of the present invention, the flow rate measuring means uses an ultrasonic flow meter to measure the flow rate at short time intervals and at predetermined time intervals by using the flow meter according to any one of claims 1 to 8. Therefore, it is possible to perform highly accurate appliance discrimination and appliance-specific flow rate calculation.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. Note that the present invention is not limited to the embodiment.

(Embodiment 1)
FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a flow meter according to the first embodiment of the present invention.

  In FIG. 1, a flow meter 1 is an ultrasonic flow meter that is a flow measuring means 3 that measures the flow rate of a fluid flowing through a measurement flow path 2, flow information such as an instantaneous flow rate and a differential flow rate of the ultrasonic flow meter, and its start. A flow rate information storage unit 4 that stores at least one of time information such as time, stop time, or duration as storage information, a device registration unit 5 that registers device information, and an ultrasonic flowmeter that is a flow rate measurement unit 3. Based on the measured flow rate information and time information, a device suitable for the device information registered in the device registration unit 5 is searched for, and the device discrimination unit 6 for discriminating a predetermined device used, and the flow rate information and time information. An instrument-specific flow rate calculation means 7 for integrating the flow rate values of the instruments used for the display, a display unit 8 for switching and displaying an instantaneous flow rate value, an integrated flow rate value, and the like, an operation unit 9 for operating the flow meter 1 from the outside, There is a gas leak It was configured to include a flow path shut-off valve 10 to shut off the gas when such own.

  Here, the flow meter 1 and the gas appliances 11 to 14 connected to the downstream side of the flow meter 1 are connected by a gas pipe 15.

  About the flow meter 1 comprised as mentioned above, the operation | movement and an effect | action are demonstrated below.

  First, the operation | movement of the instrument discrimination | determination of the gas appliances 11-14 and the flow measurement according to appliances and a method are demonstrated using FIG.

  FIG. 2 shows an instantaneous flow rate change of the devices A, B, C, and D connected to the flow meter 1. For example, when the instantaneous flow rate value measured at intervals of 2 seconds increases greatly, some device starts operating, and when the instantaneous flow value decreases greatly, some device stops operating. Is determined. In the instantaneous flow rate data of the instrument shown in FIG. 2, T1 indicates the start of the operation of the instrument, and T2 indicates the stop of the operation of the instrument. Moreover, you may perform operation | movement and a stop of an instrument using the differential flow volume before and behind a fixed time in an instantaneous flow volume. In this case, when the differential flow rate value is larger than the predetermined flow rate value and a positive value, it is determined that some device starts operating, and when the differential flow rate is larger than the predetermined flow rate value and a negative value, some device is determined to stop operating. When the instantaneous flow rate or the differential flow rate is within the range of the previously registered flow value, the device is identified by specifying the device from the instantaneous flow rate value or the differential flow value. Further, it becomes easier to discriminate by using not only the differential flow rate around 2 seconds but also the differential flow rate when operating for 4 seconds or 6 seconds. Furthermore, the flow rate Q when the device operates stably, the time until the instantaneous flow rate reaches the stable operation, and the flow rate fluctuation width ΔQ during the stable operation are determined to determine the device with higher accuracy. It can be carried out.

  FIG. 3 shows a list of examples of appliance discrimination conditions.

  In FIG. 3, for example, when a large flow rate of 1000 L / h or more is used, the device A, the device B between 500 and 1000 L / h, the device C between 200 and 400 L / h, and the rising speed of the instantaneous flow rate are slow. Thus, if the flow rate is 400 to 800 L / h and the time until the stable operation is reached is within a range of 200 to 300 seconds, for example, it is determined as the instrument C. Furthermore, the flow rate change ΔQ in the portion where the operation is stable between T1 and T2 varies depending on the instrument. By using this as the discrimination means, the discrimination accuracy is improved.

  The appliance registration means 5 registers registered information such as the average flow rate Q used during stable operation of the connected gas appliance, the flow rate rising speed, and the flow rate change ΔQ during stable operation. It is data for use. By registering such data, the gas appliance discrimination system is dramatically improved. For example, there are a method of individually integrating the instantaneous flow rate and a method of estimating and calculating the use flow rate from the average flow rate value of the instantaneous flow rate at the start of use and the instantaneous flow rate at the time of stop of the appliance. By combining these methods, it is possible to accurately reduce the storage capacity of the integrated flow rate of individual instruments. In this case, if the change in the instantaneous flow rate is large, the integrated value of the instantaneous flow rate is used, and during stable operation, the average use flow rate value Q is multiplied by the time when the device is used, that is, the time period of T2-T1. The flow rate can be determined.

  The appliance registration means 5 can be provided with a learning function for registering appliance information at the time of appliance installation or daily use. With such a learning function, measurement accuracy can be dramatically improved.

  In this way, by measuring the instantaneous flow rate or differential flow rate, it is possible to determine the start and stop of use of the device, and further to determine the device that is operating by comparing with the registered information, each flow rate The flow rate for each device can be calculated from the value and the time of use. As a result, customer services such as appliance charges can be realized.

(Embodiment 2)
FIG. 4 shows the time change of the instantaneous flow rate value when two instruments in the second embodiment of the present invention are activated simultaneously. In FIG. 4, the solid line shows the time change of the instantaneous flow rate value measured by the flow meter 1, and the dotted line shows the time change of the instantaneous flow rate when the device A and the device B operate independently. T1 indicates the time when the device A and the device B start to be used simultaneously, T2 indicates the time when the device A stops using, and T3 indicates the time when the device B stops using. As shown in this figure, when a plurality of appliances are activated simultaneously, the appliance discrimination condition example shown in FIG. 3 cannot be applied as it is. Therefore, the example of appliance discrimination conditions shown in FIG. 5 is used. FIG. 5 shows an example of appliance discrimination conditions when two devices are activated simultaneously. As shown in the first embodiment, appliances that have started to be used at the same time are specified to some extent based on the time until stable operation, the average flow rate Q during stable operation, the flow rate fluctuation range ΔQ during stable operation, and the like. Furthermore, an appliance is specified by the presence or absence of a change in the flow rate rising gradient until stable operation. Since it is impossible to sufficiently discriminate only with such information, the value (Q4-Q3) in which the instantaneous flow rate of T2 shown in FIG. 5 is decreased is used for discrimination. Since this flow rate decrease value corresponds to the flow rate during stable operation in the discrimination example shown in FIG. 3, the discrimination accuracy is improved by using the change amount of the instantaneous flow rate for discrimination.

  In this way, by measuring the instantaneous flow rate or differential flow rate, it is possible to determine the start and stop of use of the device, and further to determine the device that is operating by comparing with the registered information, each flow rate The flow rate for each device can be calculated from the value and the time of use. As a result, customer services such as appliance charges can be realized.

(Embodiment 3)
FIG. 6 shows the time change of the instantaneous flow rate value when the three instruments in the third embodiment of the present invention are activated simultaneously. In FIG. 6, the solid line indicates the time change of the instantaneous flow rate value measured by the flow meter 1, and the dotted line indicates the time change of the instantaneous flow rate when the devices A, B, and C operate independently. Yes. T1 indicates the time when the device A, the device B, and the device C start to be used at the same time, T2 indicates the time when the device A stops using, T3 indicates the time when the device B stops using, and T4 indicates the time that the device C has lost. As shown in FIG. 5, when three appliances are activated simultaneously, the appliance discrimination condition example shown in FIG. 5 cannot be applied as it is. Therefore, the example of appliance discrimination conditions shown in FIG. 7 is used. FIG. 7 shows an example of appliance discrimination conditions when three devices are activated simultaneously, and FIG. 8 shows an example of appliance discrimination conditions when four devices are activated simultaneously. As shown in the second embodiment, the time until the stable operation, the average flow rate Q during the stable operation, the flow rate fluctuation range ΔQ during the stable operation, the presence or absence of the change in the flow rate rising gradient until the stable operation, the decreased instantaneous flow rate (Q4) -Q3, Q4-Q3) are used for discrimination. Since this flow rate decrease value corresponds to the flow rate during stable operation in the discrimination example shown in FIG. 3, the discrimination accuracy is improved by using the change amount of the instantaneous flow rate for discrimination. Even when four devices are activated at the same time, the same determination is made using the determination example shown in FIG.

  In this way, by identifying the gas appliance that is operating by appliance discrimination and specifying the flow rate at which the gas is used for each appliance, which appliance is used and how much gas is consumed. It becomes possible, and it is possible to construct a fee system such as a fee for each appliance. Further, the flow rate for each device can be calculated in a time zone close to the use timing of the device, and the security for each device can be performed in a timely manner, which can be used to enhance the safety function.

  Although the above description has been given of the case where an ultrasonic flowmeter is used, it is obvious that the same effect can be obtained with other instantaneous flow rate measuring means. And by using an instantaneous flow meter, the measurement timing can be set at equal intervals regardless of the flow rate, so that it is possible to discriminate the device at any timing with any flow rate. Moreover, although demonstrated with the gas meter, it can use for discrimination | determination of the instrument used connected to the downstream of a flow measuring device, and the security of an instrument similarly in an industrial flow meter and a water meter.

As described above, the flow meter according to the present invention includes a flow rate measuring means for fluid, the flow rate information storage means for storing the flow rate value and time information measured by the flow measuring means, a plurality of fixtures starts simultaneously used use of the device connected to the downstream side of said flow measurement means and instruments registration means for registering the flow rate information, and the flow rate information flow information registered in the appliance registration unit and the information stored in the storage unit based on the time It was used on the basis of the stored flow rate value and time information by including an appliance discriminating means for discriminating the situation and an instrument-specific flow rate measuring means for storing the flow rate of the fluid flowing in the appliance discriminated by the appliance discriminating means. As well as discriminating the appliance, the flow rate used by the appliance can be calculated, and the flow rate can be integrated for each appliance.

Block diagram of a flow rate measuring device in Embodiment 1 of the present invention The characteristic figure which shows the time change of the instantaneous flow rate of the instrument A and the instrument B in Embodiment 1 of this invention The characteristic view which shows the time change of the instantaneous flow rate of the instrument C and the instrument D in Embodiment 1 of this invention Correlation diagram of examples of appliance discrimination conditions in Embodiment 1 of the present invention The characteristic view which shows the time change of the instantaneous flow rate of two apparatuses in Embodiment 2 of this invention Correlation diagram of examples of appliance discrimination conditions in Embodiment 1 of the present invention The characteristic view which shows the time change of the instantaneous flow rate of three apparatuses in Embodiment 3 of this invention Correlation diagram of examples of appliance discrimination conditions in Embodiment 1 of the present invention Correlation diagram of examples of appliance discrimination conditions in Embodiment 1 of the present invention Block diagram of a conventional flow measurement device

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Flowmeter 3 Flow measurement means 4 Flow rate information storage means 5 Instrument registration means 6 Instrument discrimination means 7 Instrument-specific flow measurement means

Claims (2)

Fluid flow measuring means;
A flow rate information storage means for storing said flow rate value measured by the flow rate measuring means and the time information,
Instrument registration means for registering flow rate information when a plurality of instruments start to be used simultaneously;
Appliance discriminating means for discriminating the usage status of the appliance connected to the downstream side of the flow rate measuring means based on the information stored in the flow rate information storage means and the flow rate information registered in the appliance registration means ;
An instrument by the flow rate measuring means for storing a fluid flow flowing to the appliance determination by the appliance determination unit,
With a flow meter. The flow rate information registered in the appliance registration means is the time until a stable operation is reached when a plurality of appliances start to be used at the same time, the instantaneous flow rate value or the differential flow rate value during stable operation, or the stable operation time. The flow meter according to claim 1, which has a flow rate fluctuation range.

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