Automated yield monitoring and control
View Patent ↗A system is adapted to automatically maintain a desired yield level for a slurry flow. Measurements of the electrical conductivity of a slurry are taken and corrected for the effects of temperature and pressure. The corrected conductivity measurements are used to arrive at a value for system yield. The system automatically determines if the yield is too high or too low relative to a desired level, and controls the rate at which accelerator is added to the slurry in order to increase or decrease yield.
1. A system for applying a slurry, comprising:
a sensor module comprising:
a plurality of electrodes adapted to measure conductivity in a slurry mixture, and
a pressure sensor adapted to measure pressure in the slurry mixture;
and
an indicator module communicatively coupled to said sensor module, said indicator module comprising:
at least one processor; and
memory comprising instructions adapted to be executed on said at least one processor, said instructions for performing the following:
receiving a measured conductivity associated with the slurry mixture from said sensor module;
receiving a measured pressure associated with the slurry mixture from said sensor module;
deriving a corrected conductivity as a function of the measured conductivity and the measured pressure to account for the pressure of the slurry mixture; and
deriving a value for yield of the slurry mixture from the corrected conductivity.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein said sensor module comprises a temperature sensor for measuring temperature in the slurry mixture, and
said instructions further comprise instructions for receiving a measured temperature associated with the slurry mixture from said sensor module, and
further wherein deriving a corrected conductivity comprises calculating a corrected conductivity as a function of measured conductivity, measured temperature, and measured pressure.
3. The system of claim 1 , wherein said instructions further comprise instructions for changing a rate at which accelerator is added to the slurry mixture depending upon the value derived for yield.
4. The system of claim 3 , wherein said instructions for changing a rate at which accelerator is added to the slurry mixture comprise instructions for generating signals to cause a pump to change a rate at which accelerator is added to the slurry mixture.
5. The system of claim 2 , wherein deriving a corrected conductivity comprises calculating a corrected conductivity according to the equation
CC t =(100/(100+θ*(temp m −25)))* C m ,
wherein CC t is conductivity corrected for temperature, temp m is the measured temperature, θ is a constant associated with the slurry mixture; and C m is the measured conductivity.
6. The system of claim 5 , wherein θ is approximately 0.52.
7. The system of claim 5 , wherein deriving a corrected conductivity further comprises calculating a corrected conductivity according to the equation
CC tp =CC t +( P m *−0.0281)+2.81,
wherein CC tp represents conductivity corrected for temperature and pressure, CC t is the conductivity corrected for temperature, and P m is the measured pressure.
8. The system of claim 1 , wherein deriving a value for yield of the slurry mixture from the corrected conductivity comprises determining a value for yield corresponding to the corrected conductivity in a mathematical relationship between yield and corrected conductivity.
9. The system of claim 8 , wherein deriving a value for yield corresponding to the corrected conductivity in a mathematical relationship between yield and corrected conductivity comprises determining a value for yield corresponding to the corrected conductivity in a linear mathematical relationship between yield and corrected conductivity.
10. The system of claim 1 , wherein deriving a value for yield of the slurry mixture from the corrected conductivity comprises calculating a value for yield according to the equation
Yield= m*CC tp +b,
wherein CC tp is conductivity corrected for pressure, and m and b are constants associated with the slurry mixture.
11. The system of claim 1 , wherein said instructions further comprise instructions for performing the following:
recieving an indication of measured color associated with the slurry mixture; and
modifying the flow of slurry mixture depending upon the measured color.
12. The system of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of electrodes are adapted to measure conductivity and the pressure sensor is adapted to measure pressure of the slurry mixture in a conduit.