A coupled finite-element, boundary-integral method for simulating ultrasonic flowmeters

Today's most popular technology of ultrasonic flow measurement is based on the transit-time principle. In this paper, a numerical simulation technique applicable to the analysis of transit-time flowmeters is presented. A flowmeter represents a large simulation problem that also requires computation of acoustic fields in moving media. For this purpose, a novel boundary integral method, the Helmholtz integral-ray tracing method (HIRM), is derived and validated. HIRM is applicable to acoustic radiation problems in arbitrary mean flows at low Mach numbers and significantly reduces the memory demands in comparison with the finite-element method (FEM). It relies on an approximate free-space Green's function which makes use of the ray tracing technique. For simulation of practical acoustic devices, a hybrid simulation scheme consisting of FEM and HIRM is proposed. The coupling of FEM and HIRM is facilitated by means of absorbing boundaries in combination with a new, reflection-free, acoustic-source formulation. Using the coupled FEM-HIRM scheme, a full three-dimensional (3-D) simulation of a complete transit-time flowmeter is performed for the first time. The obtained simulation results are in good agreement with measurements both at zero flow and under flow conditions.