Ultrasonic void estimation system for determination of liquids in microgravity tanks

An ultrasonic measurement technique has been developed for determining the quantity of liquid storage tanks in the microgravity environment. When the void fraction in a vessel is sufficiently small and the liquid wets the vessel, a spherical void interior to the liquid forms. The proposed procedure, the void estimate center technique (VECT), uses an iterative algorithm to compute the center location and thus the radius of a spherically shaped void. The VECT algorithm has been developed as a two-dimensional model that can also be easily extended to three-dimensional problems. After evaluating different transducer locations, a prototype was constructed and its performance was evaluated. Both system design and hardware are discussed in detail