US 11,733,138 B1
Multi-density array controller
Geoffrey Bowers, Loveland, OH (US); Eric Danielson, Norwood, OH (US); and Christopher Hamilton Willoughby, Loveland, OH (US)
Assigned to Vega Americas, Inc., Mason, OH (US)
Filed by Vega Americas, Inc., Cincinnati, OH (US)
Filed on Jan. 8, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/144,759.
Int. Cl. G01N 9/24 (2006.01); G01F 23/288 (2006.01)
CPC G01N 9/24 (2013.01) [G01F 23/288 (2013.01)] 17 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
2. A system for determining the elevation of an emulsion phase in a vessel that contains a first matter phase and a second matter phase, the system comprising:
a plurality of source-detector pairs operatively connected to the vessel, each of the source-detector pairs comprising a radioactive source and a radiometric detector, wherein each of the source-detector pairs is positioned at an elevation measured from the bottom of the vessel;
a computing device communicatively coupled to the plurality of source-detector pairs, the computing device configured to identify the height of an emulsion phase using an upper boundary target density and a lower boundary target density by the steps of:
obtaining density readings from at least two of the source-detector pairs;
calculating an upper boundary emulsion phase elevation from said density readings, and at least one of the upper boundary target density and the lower boundary target density; and
calculating a lower boundary emulsion phase elevation from said density readings, and at least one of the upper boundary target density and the lower boundary target density,
wherein the lower boundary emulsion phase elevation is calculated by:
identifying an above target density source-detector pair from the plurality of source-detector pairs, the above target density source-detector pair producing an above target density reading that is the density reading from the plurality of source-detector pairs that is closest in value or equal to, but is not more than, the lower boundary target density;
identifying a below target density source-detector pair from the plurality of source-detector pairs, the below target density source-detector pair producing a below target density reading that is the density reading from the plurality of source-detector pairs that is closest in value or equal to, but is not less than, the lower boundary target density;
calculating a percentage offset, the percentage offset defined as the ratio between (1) and (2), where (1) is the difference between the lower boundary target density and the above target density reading and (2) is the difference between the below target density reading and the above target density reading;
multiplying the percentage offset by the difference between the elevation of the above target density source-detector pair and the elevation of the below target density source-detector pair; and
adding the elevation of the below target density source-detector pair to the product of the multiplication.