US-12625010-B2 - Coupling adapter for a thermometer

US12625010B2US 12625010 B2US12625010 B2US 12625010B2US-12625010-B2

Abstract

The present disclosure relates to a coupling adapter for a measuring insert for determining and/or monitoring a temperature of a medium including a temperature sensor, which measuring insert can be introduced into a protective tube for accommodating the measuring insert. The coupling adapter includes a base body, including a bore with a diameter adapted to an outer diameter of the measuring insert, and a coupling element, which is arranged on an outer surface of the base body, which coupling element is embodied and/or dimensioned so as to serve for fixing the measuring insert inside the protective tube in a state in which the measuring insert is introduced into the protective tube. The present disclosure further includes an apparatus for determining and/or monitoring the temperature of a medium comprising such coupling adapter.

Inventors

Gianluca Fortunato
Michele Pietroni
Davide Eralti
Davide Tagliabue
Andrea Micieli
Markus Mornhinweg

Assignees

ENDRESS+HAUSER WETZER GMBH+CO. KG

Dates

Publication Date: 20260512
Application Date: 20221110
Priority Date: 20211110

Claims (11)

1 . A coupling adapter for a measuring insert for determining and/or monitoring a temperature of a medium, wherein the measuring insert comprises a temperature sensor and is configured to be introduced into a protective tube configured to accommodate the measuring insert, the coupling adapter comprising: a base body having a generally cylindrical shape and including an internal bore having a fixed bore diameter, which corresponds to an outer diameter of the measuring insert; and a coupling element configured so as to fix the measuring insert inside the protective tube in a state when the measuring insert is introduced into the protective tube, wherein the coupling element is arranged on an outer surface of the base body, wherein the coupling element is at least partially composed of a thermally conductive material and includes a spring element as a first at least partially elastically deformable element, and wherein the base body includes at least one section in which an outer diameter of the base body is reduced and the spring element is arranged.
2 . The coupling adapter of claim 1 , wherein the base body is at least partially composed of a thermally conductive material.
3 . The coupling adapter of claim 1 , wherein the spring element is configured such that a spring travel of the spring element is perpendicular to a longitudinal axis of the measuring insert.
4 . The coupling adapter of claim 1 , wherein the spring element comprises a plurality of outward curved bars and at least one ring-shaped connection element to which the plurality of curved bars is connected, wherein the plurality of curved bars is evenly distributed around a circumference of the connection element.
5 . The coupling adapter of claim 1 , wherein the coupling element is connected to the base body by a force-fit and/or form-fit connection.
6 . The coupling adapter of claim 1 , wherein the at least one section of the base body includes a first section and a second section, each having reduced outer diameters, wherein a first outer diameter in the first section is different from a second outer diameter in the second section, and wherein the coupling element is arranged either in the first section or in the second section.
7 . The coupling adapter of claim 1 , wherein the coupling element includes a mesh or a foam as a second at least partially elastically deformable element.
8 . The coupling adapter of claim 7 , wherein the spring element, the mesh and/or the foam are metallic.
9 . The coupling adapter of claim 1 , wherein the coupling element further comprises a filling material distributed about the spring element to fill gaps in the coupling element, wherein the filling material is a powder or a paste.
10 . The coupling adapter of claim 9 , wherein the coupling element comprises a graphite powder.
11 . An apparatus for determining and/or monitoring a temperature of a medium in a vessel or pipe, the apparatus comprising: a measuring insert comprising: a temperature sensor including a resistive element or a thermocouple; and connection lines adapted to electrically contact the temperature sensor; a protective tube configured to accommodate the measuring insert; and the coupling adapter according to claim 1 .

Description

The present application is related to and claims the priority benefit of European Patent Application No. 21207421.5, filed on Nov. 10, 2021, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure generally relates to coupling adapters for measuring inserts for determining and/or monitoring a temperature of a medium in a vessel or pipe. The present disclosure further relates to apparatuses for determining and/or monitoring a temperature of a medium in a vessel or pipe comprising such a coupling adapter. BACKGROUND Thermometers have become known from the state of the art in a wide variety of designs. For example, there are thermometers that use the expansion of a liquid, a gas or a solid with a known coefficient of expansion to measure the temperature. Other thermometers associate the electrical conductivity of a material with the temperature, for example, when resistance elements or thermocouples are used. Pyrometers, on the other hand, use the heat radiation of a substance to determine its temperature. The respective underlying measuring principles have each been described in a large number of publications. A temperature sensor in the form of a resistive element or a so-called thin-film sensor, in particular a resistance temperature detector (RTD), for example, uses a sensor element provided with connecting wires and applied to a carrier substrate, whereby the rear side of the carrier substrate is usually metallically coated. The sensor elements used are so-called resistor elements, which are given, for example, by platinum elements, which are also commercially available as PT10, PT100 and PT1000 elements. In case thermocouples, the temperature is determined by means of a thermoelectric voltage occurring between the thermocouple wires connected at one end and consisting of different materials. For temperature measurement, commonly thermocouples according to DIN standard IES584, for example, thermocouples of type K, J, N, S, R, B, T or E, are used as temperature sensors. But other material pairs, especially those with a measurable Seebeck effect, are also possible. In certain applications, temperature sensors are arranged in a measuring insert, which in turn is brought into contact with the medium via a protective tube in the form of a thermowell, the protective tube being in physical contact with the fluid. On the one hand, such thermowells are subject to high loads, in particular when they are exposed to a flowing medium which causes different mechanical forces acting on the protective tube, e.g., shear forces or forces induced by coherent vortex shedding which can result in vortex induced vibrations (VIV). Vortex shedding in fluid dynamics is known as “Karman vortex street” and refers to a repeating pattern of swirling vortices in alternating directions caused by the unsteady separation of flow of a medium around a body, causing the body to vibrate. The closer the frequency of the vibrations is to the natural frequency of the body around which the medium flows, the more the body vibrates. Moreover, the measuring accuracy of a thermometer is highly dependent on thermal couplings between the respective medium, the process environment and/or the thermometer. In this manner, the prevailing heat flows play a decisive role. A reliable determination of the temperature requires that the thermometer and the medium are in thermal equilibrium for at least a period of time required to determine the temperature. At least for this period of time the temperature of the thermometer and that of the medium, therefore, should be ideally essentially the same. The reaction of a thermometer to a change in temperature, i.e., the so-called response time of the thermometer, plays a decisive role here, especially if the temperature of the medium changes substantially continuously. In that sense, another problem frequently associated with thermometers comprising a thermowell is related to the response time. Many different solutions have been presented to reduce the response time and to increase the measuring accuracy of thermometers comprising thermowells. For example, walls of the protective tube are made as small as possible. Another approach relates to improvements of contacts between the measuring insert and thermowell. In this context DE102013114140A1 or DE102014101968A1, e.g., describe the use of additional spring elements to improve the contact between the protection tube and the measuring insert. DE102018111167A1 suggests a coupling unit positioned between the measuring insert and thermowell. WO2014/158393A1 discloses a solid insert configured to removably support the temperature probe within the thermowell and to provide a thermal contact between thermowell and probe. SUMMARY Based on the known solutions, it is an object of the present disclosure to provide a measuring insert for use with a thermowell with improved performance. This object is achieved by the measuring inse