ABSTRACT
This study deals with a computer system for measuring flow rate of tap water flowing in a rigid pipeline in a
non-contact method by using an acoustic emission (AE) sensor placed on a surface of a pipeline. The acoustic emission
generated by tap water flowing at a constant flow rate in a pipeline is caught by the AE sensor experimentally, and the
corresponding output of the AE sensor is converted to a root mean square (RMS) value. It became clear that the relation
between flow rate and the corresponding RMS value can be expressed as a quadratic curve with good approximation.
This quadratic curve is used as the calibration date for measurement of flow rate. A prototype of a flow rate measuring
system based on a computer was constructed by taking account of the calibration data. It is shown in the experiment
that the flow rate more than 3.2 l/min can be measured by using the measuring system proposed in this study.