ULTRASONIC MEASUREMENT OF THE GEOMETRIC PARAMETERS OF GASEOUS VOIDS IN LOW GRAVITY FLUID CONTAINERS

Abstract to establish the location and shape of a Iiquid/vapor interface in a liquid container, thus enabling liquid A demonstration system for the ultrasonic gauging of volume measurement [I,21. fluids in low-gravity has been designed and tested. For purposes of simplification, it was assumed that vapor Typically, in propellant storage applications, the liquid within a liquid container in low-gravity would form a wets container walls so that a vapor bubble (or spherical bubble which would float freely in the bubbles) exists within the liquid [3]. The liquid/vapor container. The project was designed to show that interface acts as a nearly perfect retlector of sound ultrasonic tcchniques could be uscd to detcrmine the waves, so that it is then possible to project ultrasonic geometry of the resulting sphere given a worst-case waves into the liqUid, measure the retlected field using transducer arrangement. The motivation was to a transducer array, and compute the interface shape simplify transducer mounting requirements so that (and volume) from these data. propellant or other storage vessels could be fitted with ultrasonic gaging systems with a single or perhaps a A limitation of conventional ultrasonic imaging few transducer penetrations. Data was collected from schemes is that they require that the discontinuit