| CPC G01K 13/02 (2013.01) [G01K 1/143 (2013.01); G01K 7/427 (2013.01)] | 13 Claims |

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1. A process fluid temperature estimation system comprising:
a mounting assembly configured to mount the process fluid temperature estimation system to an external surface of a process fluid conduit:
a sensor capsule having at least one temperature sensitive element disposed therein and configured to sense at least a temperature of the external surface of the process fluid conduit;
measurement circuitry coupled to the sensor capsule and configured to detect a characteristic of the at least one temperature sensitive element that varies with temperature and provide sensor capsule temperature information;
a controller coupled to the measurement circuitry, the controller being configured to obtain a temperature measurement of the external surface of the process fluid conduit and to obtain a reference temperature and employ a heat transfer calculation with the reference temperature, the external surface temperature measurement and a known thermal relationship between the external surface temperature sensor in the sensor capsule and the reference temperature to generate an estimated process fluid temperature output;
wherein the controller is configured to obtain a system response function that models a system time constant (τ) and utilize the system response function to adjust the estimated process fluid temperature output; and
wherein the controller is configured to employ a plurality of discretized differential equations and is configured to select one of the plurality of discretized differential equations based on a type of thermal change.
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