Thermostatic and dynamic performance of an ultrasonic density probe

The thermally static and dynamic performance of an ultrasonic density probe for liquids is investigated in the density range of 750 to 1300 kg/m/sup 3/ at temperature ranging from 0 to 40/spl deg/C. The single transducer probe uses a pulse echo technique to obtain the characteristic acoustic impedance of the liquid and, subsequently, the speed of sound through the liquid to obtain the density of the liquid. Variations in the initial sound amplitude are addressed by the design of a layered two material probe. It is shown that it is possible to obtain an accuracy of 0.4% in the experiments carried out. For changing temperature, the probe exhibits large errors because of problems in estimating the temperatures in certain regions of the probe.