INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 18, No. 8, pp.

1085-1092 AUGUST 2017 / 1085

REGULAR PAPER DOI: 10.1007/s12541-017-0127-z

ISSN 2234-7593 (Print) / 2005-4602 (Online)

Measurement of Diesel Exhaust Fluid Concentration in

Urea-SCR after-Treatment System

PalaniKumar Gurusamy1, Uma Gandhi1, Umapathy Mangalanathan1,#, and Karl Marx LR2
1 Department of Instrumentation and Control Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli, 620015, India
2 Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai, 625003, India
# Corresponding Author / E-mail: umapathy@nitt.edu, TEL: +91-431-2503353, FAX: +91-431-2500133

KEYWORDS: Diesel exhaust fluid, Piezoelectricity, Selective catalytic reduction, Ultrasound

In an effort to meet the established emission standards Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) is used to reduce NOx emissions with
diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) as additive in the exhaust of diesel engines. ISO 22241-1:2006 specifies the quality characteristics of DEF
in order to maintain efficiency and hence, it is essential that the concentration of urea in DEF is accurately monitored. In this paper,
a measurement system is designed, developed and tested for measuring the concentration of urea in DEF. The design involves
piezoelectric ultrasound transmitter and receiver with associated electronics operating at a frequency of 4 MHz. The concentration
of urea in DEF is measured (i) by measuring the time of flight of ultrasound waves between transmitter and receiver (ii) by measuring
the amplitude of received signal in terms of frequency using voltage-to-frequency converter. The measurement system is modeled using
two-port network model for piezoelectric transmitter/receiver and transmission line model for DEF medium. The prototype of
measurement system is fabricated with all associated electronics and tested for variation in concentration of urea in DEF. The results
from prototype are in close agreement with the results obtained from analytical model. The measurement system is tested for
repeatability and sensitivity to temperature.

Manuscript received: December 2, 2016 / Revised: February 14, 2017 / Accepted: April 17, 2017

1. Introduction exhaust. A pulse-echo based ultrasound measurement system with

microcontroller based electronics for simultaneous measurement of the
Selective catalytic reduction (SCR) is an after-treatment technology quality, level and concentration of urea in diesel exhaust fluid is
5
that uses diesel exhaust fluid and a catalytic converter to significantly proposed by Reimer. An ultrasonic based measurement system using
reduce oxides of nitrogen (NOx) emission from diesel engines. Diesel resonance principle is used to measure the fluid properties such as
exhaust fluid (DEF) is a mixture of deionized water and 32.5% of concentration and specific gravity of homogenous solution, specifically
6
automotive grade urea. The efficiency of the SCR system in reducing sodium chloride. To measure the concentration of slurries or colloidal
NO emissions mainly depends on the urea concentration in DEF
X solutions an ultrasound based measurement system which uses the
which has to be precisely 32.5%. When contaminants mix with diesel velocity and attenuation measurement for kaolin samples of various
7
exhaust fluid, ability of the system to reduce NO in the exhaust is
X concentrations in water has been proposed. An ultrasound based multi-
diminished and irreversible damage may occur to the selective catalytic purpose sensor is reported, which allows simultaneous measurement of
reduction system. Hence, the continuous monitoring of DEF sound velocity and longitudinal viscosity of homogenous liquids and is
8,9
concentration is significant and in recent years measuring techniques demonstrated for glycerol-water solutions of various concentrations.
1-
for the quality of diesel exhaust fluid has become an area of research. In several previous studies, the pulse-receiver unit for transmitting and
3 4
Frivik proposed a contact type apparatus for measuring the quality of receiving the ultrasound signals have been used. In addition to the use
urea solution, by sensing the electrical conductivity, density and of pulse-receiver unit, all the measurements were carried out using the
concentration of urea in diesel exhaust fluid. In this proposed standard test and measuring instruments. Moreover, in majority of the
technique, polarization of the electrodes will affect the accuracy of pulse-receiver unit based measurement systems designed for liquid
measurement system and corrosion of the electrode metal surface will applications, the required resolution is not considered as the design
contaminate the solution and results in undesirable byproducts in the factor but attempts have been made to demonstrate the change in time

© KSPE and Springer 2017

 1086 / AUGUST 2017 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 18, No. 8

Fig. 1 Schematic of the Ultrasonic Diesel exhaust fluid quality measurement system

Fig. 2 Model of Ultrasonic Diesel exhaust fluid quality measurement system

of flight over a range of concentration. MHz). The use of amplitude to frequency converter in receiver
The efficient operation of urea-SCR system depends on the urea electronics allows having a lower frequency signal which helps in
concentration in DEF, and it must be maintained at 32.5% with allowable designing readout and associated electronics at higher sampling rate.
limit of ± 1.5%. The concentration of urea is influenced by temperature The ultrasound transmitter/receiver and the diesel exhaust fluid medium
with its freezing point at -11ºC. The shelf life of DEF depends on its is modeled as a two-port network and transmission line model respectively
storage temperature and it is stated by the manufacturers that the shelf and the simulation results are compared with experimental results.
life of 2 years if it is maintained between 25ºC to 32ºC and reduces to
6 months if the temperature fluctuates between -11ºC to 32ºC. The
3
density of DEF at 20ºC is 1.093 g/cm . When DEF is stored in 2. Measurement System Principle
automobiles, its urea concentration is required to be measured as it is
influenced by temperature and other environmental conditions like The measurement system to measure urea concentration in diesel
presence of dust particles, etc., to ensure NO reduction efficiency and
X exhaust fluid is shown in Fig. 1. The measurement system consists of
protect SCR system. a diesel exhaust fluid tank, ultrasonic transmitter, receiver and the
In this work, the measurement system is designed to measure the corresponding electronics. The transmitter transmits ultrasonic waves
urea concentration in DEF with 1% resolution and the effect of in y-direction, which is received by the receiver mounted on the opposite
temperature in measurement is also studied. Two ultrasound based side of the diesel exhaust fluid tank. The change in urea concentration
measurement methods are proposed. In first method, the urea in the diesel exhaust fluid causes a change in the velocity of ultrasonic
concentration is measured by measuring the time of flight of the waves transmitted in the fluid medium, hence the time-of-flight of
ultrasound waves between transmitter and receiver. In second method, ultrasonic waves between the transmitter and receiver is measured as a
the amplitude of the received ultrasound signal is measured in terms of means of concentration change. The urea concentration is also measured
frequency. The proposed measurement methods in this paper are new by converting the variation in the amplitude of the received signal into
in diesel exhaust fluid quality measurement as compared to the available a frequency.
methods. Here, the transmitter and receiver are mounted on opposite
sides of the diesel exhaust fluid tank. Further, the contribution of this
work towards DEF quality measurement includes design of a receiver 3. Theory
electronics which operates with a lower frequency (1.5 kHz) to measure
amplitude of received ultrasound signal which is of higher frequency (4 The model of the measurement system shown in Fig. 1 is developed
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 18, No. 8 AUGUST 2017 / 1087

14
using the two-port model for piezoelectric transducer and the transmission parameters of back and front ports of the matching layer are given by,
line model for diesel exhaust fluid. The piezoelectric transducer is
⎛ Am Bm ⎞ ⎛ cos (β m tm ) jZm Asin (β m tm )⎞
modeled with one acoustic port and one electrical port. The other ⎜ ⎟=⎜ ⎟ (6)
⎝ Cm Dm⎠ ⎝ j sin (β m tm )/AZm cos (β m tm ) ⎠
acoustic port is not considered, as one face (backside) of the transducer
is closed with an attenuating backing material. The model of the 10
with, βm = ω / C33 /ρm where, βm, Zm, tm and ρm are the propagation
measurement system with the ultrasonic transmitter, receiver and the constant, characteristic acoustic impedance, thickness and density of
transmission medium (diesel exhaust fluid) is shown in Fig. 2. the impedance matching layer respectively. The overall electrical input
impedance at the transmitter terminal accounting for piezoelectric
15
3.1 Two-port network model for piezoelectric transducer element and acoustic matching layer is,
The transfer matrix between the electric port and front acoustic port
A g ZL + Bg
is obtained using the ABCD matrix approach from the theory of Zin ( ω ) = ----------------------
- (7)
11
C g ZL + D g
electrical networks. The transfer matrix coefficients (APT, BPT, CPT and
DPT) for the piezoelectric transducer element as transmitter are obtained where, Ag, Bg, Cg and Dg are the overall matrix coefficients and are
using the Krimholtz-Leedom-Matthaei (KLM) equivalent circuit obtained by the product of individual matrices corresponding to the
12
model. piezoelectric element and the matching layers and ZL is the acoustic
The basic two-port network model for the piezoelectric transmitter impedance of the diesel exhaust fluid medium which is considered as
and receiver is based on KLM equivalent circuit. The piezoelectric load. The piezoelectric transducer used as a receiver with a matching
transducer is considered as an acoustic transmission line of length t layer is modeled by considering force (F) and displacement (u) as input
terminated with load TL and backing layer TB on either side. The KLM and voltage (Vout) and current (Iout) as output.
equivalent circuit consists of an electrical network with frequency The transfer matrix coefficients of the receiver (APR, BPR, CPR and
dependent components such as capacitance C , impedance XS and 0 DPR) are given by
transformer N connected to center of the acoustic transmission line.
⎛ APR BPR ⎞ –1 –1 –1 –1
The resulting matrix coefficients are obtained from the product of ⎜ ⎟ = [ XS ] [ N ] [ T B ] [ TL ] (8)
⎝ CPR DPR⎠
the elementary transfer matrices corresponding to the series impedance
in front of the transformer (XS), the transformer (N), transmission line where,
of length t/2, terminated by the backing layer (TB) and transmission line 2
⎛ ⎛ h33 sinβ t 1 ⎞⎞
of length t/2 terminated by the load (TL). The transfer matrix coefficients ⎜1
–1 - – ----------⎟⎟
–j ⎜ -------------------
⎝ ω Zo A ωCo ⎠⎟
[ XS ] = ⎜ 2 (9)
⎜ ⎟
13
are given by,
⎝0 1 ⎠
⎛ APT BPT ⎞
⎜ ⎟ = [XS ] [N ][TB ] [TL ] (1)
⎝ CPT DPT⎠ ⎛ 2h 33 sin (β t/2 ) ⎞
⎜ --------------------------------
ωZo A
0 ⎟
where,
–1
[N ] = ⎜ ⎟ (10)
⎜ 2h33 sin (β t/2 ) ⎟
2 ⎜ 0 -------------------------------- ⎟
⎛ ⎛ h33 sinβ t 1 ⎞ ⎞ ⎝ ωZo A ⎠
⎜1 - – ----------⎟ ⎟
j ⎜ -------------------
⎝ ω Zo A ωCo ⎠ ⎟
[ XS ] = ⎜ 2 (2)
⎜ ⎟ ⎛ 1 0⎞
⎝0 ⎠ [TB ] = ⎜
–1 ⎟
B tan (β t/2 )
1 Z + jZ (11)
⎜ –------------------------------------------------------
o
- 1⎟
⎝ Zo A( Zo + jZB tan (β t/2 )) ⎠
⎛ 2h 33 sin (β t/2 ) ⎞
⎜ --------------------------------
ωZo A
0 ⎟
[N ] = ⎜ ⎟ (3) ⎛ cos (β t/2 ) –jZo A sin (β t/2 )⎞
[TL ] = ⎜⎜ j sin (β t/2 ) ⎟
⎜ ⎟ –1
ωZo A (12)
⎜ 0 --------------------------------⎟ – ------------------------ cos (β t/2 ) ⎟
⎝ 2h33 sin (β t/2 )⎠ ⎝ ZoA ⎠

⎛ 1 0⎞
[TB ] = ⎜ Zo + jZB tan (β t/2 ) ⎟ (4) 3.2 Transmission line model for diesel exhaust fluid medium
⎜ ------------------------------------------------------
- 1⎟
⎝ Zo A( Zo + jZB tan (β t/2 ) ) ⎠ The behavior of the diesel exhaust fluid in a tank with fixed boundary
is modeled as an acoustic transmission line with an acoustic impedance
⎛ cos (β t/2 ) jZo A sin (β t/2 )⎞ Zac and terminal load impedance ZL. The acoustic impedance Zac is
[TL ] = ⎜ j sin (β t/2 ) ⎟ (5)
⎜ ------------------------ cos (β t/2 ) ⎟ obtained from the characteristic impedance (ZDEF) and propagation
⎝ Zo A ⎠ 16,17
constant (kDEF) of the diesel exhaust fluid which are defined as,
with h33 = e33 /ε 33 , β = ω/ C33 /ρ , Z0 = ρC33 , C0 = Aε 33 where h33,
ZDEF = ρDEF ⎛ --- + jω ( 2μ + η )⎞
1
β, Z0,C0, e33, ε33, ω, C33, ρ, A, t and ZB are the piezoelectric constant, (13)
⎝ζ ⎠
propagation constant, characteristic acoustic impedance, capacitance,
stress constant, dielectric constant, resonant frequency, elastic constant,
ω ρDEF
density, surface area and thickness of the piezoelectric element and k DEF = ------------------------------------------ (14)
acoustic impedance of backing layer (brass) respectively. ⎛ 1--- + jω ( 2μ + η )⎞
⎝ζ ⎠
The transfer matrix elements Am, Bm, Cm and Dm relating the
 1088 / AUGUST 2017 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 18, No. 8

2
with ζ = 1/ρDEF CDEF where, CDEF is velocity of sound in diesel exhaust
fluid, ζ, ρDEF, μ and η are adiabatic compressibility, density, shear
viscosity and second coefficient of viscosity of diesel exhaust fluid
respectively. Neglecting the viscous loss, the characteristic impedance
8
and the propagation constant are approximated as,

ZDEF ≈ ρDEF CDEF (15)

ω
k DEF ≈ j ------------ (16)
CDEF
Fig. 3 Frequency response (Magnitude plot) of the transducer for
The input acoustic impedance Zac of the diesel exhaust fluid medium variation in acoustic impedance of the matching layer (a) Z = M

is given by 1 MRayls (b) Z = 1.7 MRayls (c) Z = 10 MRayls (d) Z =

M M M

15 MRayls
ZL + jZDEF tan ( kDEF l )
Zac = AZDEF ------------------------------------------------ (17)
ZDEF + jZL tan ( kDEF l )

4. Transmitter and Receiver Design

The transmitter and the receiver of the measurement system is

designed with piezoceramic of type SP-5H (lead-zirconate-titanate,
PZT) which is equivalent to Navy type VI from Sparkler Ceramics Pvt.
Ltd., India, having resonant frequency of 4 MHz operating in the
18
thickness expansion mode. The thickness (t = 0.5 mm) of the Fig. 4 Frequency response (Phase plot) of the transducer for variation
piezoelectric layer is designed to be half the wavelength (λ) of the in acoustic impedance of the matching layer (a) Z = 1 MRayls
M

ultrasonic waves and the diameter (d = 10 mm) is designed five times (b) Z = 1.7 MRayls (c) Z = 10 MRayls (d) Z = 15 MRayls
M M M

19,20
the thickness of the piezoelectric layer. The acoustic impedance of
piezoelectric layer is 29.6 MRayl and diesel exhaust fluid is 1.5 MRayl.
This mismatch in acoustic impedance between the piezoelectric layer
and diesel exhaust fluid necessitates designing of an impedance
matching layer to reduce the amount of reflection at the interface and
to improve the efficiency of transmission. It is also intended to act as
a protective layer for the piezoelectric element. Polyurethane (1.7
MRayl) is selected to be the impedance layer as it retains the
transmitter resonant frequency at 4 MHz and also matches the acoustic
impedance. The frequency response (magnitude plot and phase plot) of
the transmitter shown in Figs. 3 and 4 illustrates the same. The
Fig. 5 Frequency response (Magnitude plot) of the transducer for
thickness (tm = 0.1 mm) of the polyurethane layer is designed to be a
variation in the thickness of matching layer for λ = 0.4 mm (a)
quarter of the wavelength (λ) of the ultrasonic wave and the diameter
no matching layer (b) λ/4 thickness (c) λ/2 thickness (d) λ
is selected to be equal to the piezoelectric layer, which also
thickness
encapsulates the piezoelectric layer. The frequency response
(magnitude plot and phase plot) of the transmitter without matching
and with matching layer obtained from the Eq. (7) is shown in Figs. 5
and 6. The results show that, for the thickness of λ/4, the resonant
frequency of the transmitter remains close to 4 MHz. The backing layer
in an ultrasound transducer reduces the unwanted reverberations at the
back side of the transducer and hence increases the transmission of
acoustic waves from the front side of the transducer. The backing layer
material must have sufficient acoustic impedance to absorb back wall
reflections rather than to reflect them and must be able to adhere to the
piezoelectric layer. The backing layer is designed with brass having
high acoustic impedance (40.6 MRayl) with thickness of 3 mm and Fig. 6 Frequency response (Phase plot) of the transducer for variation
diameter of 16 mm, which satisfies the prerequisites of an effective in the thickness of matching layer for λ = 0.4 mm (a) no
backing material. Brass is also available in sufficiently thick substrate matching layer (b) λ/4 thickness (c) λ/2 thickness (d) λ
form and has a high surface quality. thickness
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 18, No. 8 AUGUST 2017 / 1089

Fig. 7 Experimental setup of the ultrasound based DEF quality

measurement system

Fig. 9 Receiver electronics of the measurement system for time of

flight measurement

Fig. 8 Transmitter electronics of the measurement system

5. Prototype of the Measurement System Fig. 10 Receiver electronics of the measurement for amplitude
variation measurement
The diesel exhaust fluid sample tank made up of 1.5 mm thick
acrylic material with the dimension of the tank as 15 mm length, 80
mm width and 50 mm height. The transmitting and receiving gain voltage amplifier, rectifier, signal detector and the circuit for
piezoelectric transducer with polyurethane impedance matching layer measurement of time interval. The transmitted signal propagated
and brass backing layer are mounted on either side of the tank wall at through the diesel exhaust fluid medium is received by the piezoelectric
a height of 20 mm from base as shown in Fig 7. transducer (receiver). The receiver output is amplified by a wideband
The measurement system is designed to operate at 4 MHz. The high gain voltage amplifier in two stages with gain of K and K . The
1 2

transmitter electronics consist of a control pulse generator, central amplifier output is rectified and is passed to the time interval
frequency generator and a wideband high gain voltage amplifier. measurement circuit via a signal detector. The signal detector circuit in
receiver electronics produces a pulse only for the first received direct
5.1 Transmitter electronics signal. The reflected waves will be of amplitude lesser than the
The designed piezoelectric ultrasound transducer operates in burst reference voltage (1.5 V) used in signal detector, this eliminates the
mode and is controlled using the transmitter electronics shown in Fig effect of spurious reflected signals. The pulse produced by signal
8. The control pulse generator turns on the 4 MHz central frequency detector circuit is given as an input to the time interval measurement
generator oscillator circuit for 1 msec to excite the transmitter. The circuit. The output of the control pulse generator from the transmitter
transmitter produces 4000 cycles of sine wave of 10 V in a single
P-P electronics is used as the start pulse for the time interval measurement
burst. The output of the central frequency generator is amplified by a circuit.
wideband high gain voltage amplifier in two stages of gain G and G 1 2

respectively, and then applied as an input to the piezoelectric transducer 5.3 Receiver electronics for measurement of variation in amplitude
(transmitter). As the distance between transmitter and receiver is fixed in the
proposed measurement system as shown in Fig. 1, the change in
5.2 Receiver electronics for measurement of time of flight concentration of diesel exhaust fluid will introduce a variation in
The receiver electronics shown in Fig. 9 consist of a wideband high amplitude of the received signal. The receiver electronics is designed to
 1090 / AUGUST 2017 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 18, No. 8

Table 1 Results for different concentration of Urea in Diesel exhaust

fluid
Concentration Time of flight of ultrasound waves (µsec)
of urea (%) Simulation data Mean experimental data
0 (water) 10.067 10.156
10.0 9.958 10.050
20.0 9.647 9.737
30.0 9.436 9.512
31.5 9.265 9.344
Fig. 11 Simulation results showing change in time of flight for 32.5 (DEF) 9.102 9.237
variation in urea concentration 33.5 8.879 9.087
40.0 8.547 8.650

Table 2 Results for variation of time of flight with temperature

variation in Diesel exhaust fluid (32.5% urea)
Temperature Time of flight of ultrasound waves (µsec)
(ºC) Simulation data Mean Experimental data
30 9.102 9.334
40 9.155 9.421
50 9.230 9.445
60 9.280 9.462
70 9.300 9.487
Fig. 12 Comparison of (a) simulation result and (b) experimental
results of time of flight for variation in urea concentration Table 3 Variation in frequency of the voltage-to-frequency converter
for different concentrations of urea in Diesel exhaust fluid
Concentration of urea (%) Frequency (kHz)
0 (water) 1.942
10 1.817
20 1.673
30 1.539
31.5 1.514
32.5 (DEF) 1.494
33.5 1.475
40 1.362

Fig. 13 Characteristics showing repeatability of the measurement system

shown in Fig 11. The prototype of the measurement system is tested by
applying a sinusoidal signal of same frequency and amplitude as an
21
measure the variation in the amplitude as frequency as shown in Fig input to the transmitter. The time of flight of the ultrasound waves is
10. It consists of amplifier, rectifier and voltage to frequency converter. measured for the same range of concentration mentioned in the
The output of voltage to frequency converter is given by simulation and the result is compared with the simulation result in Fig
12 and also presented in Table 1. From the results it can be concluded
1
fVFC = ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- (18) that around the required concentration of urea (32.5%) in diesel exhaust
⎛ VCC – Vin ⎞
( R1 + R2 )C2 × ln ---------------------------- + 0.693R2 C2 fluid, the variation of the velocity of ultrasound is high enough to be
⎝ VCC – 0.5Vin ⎠
detected by the readout device, the sensitivity is found to be 0.128
where, Vin is the amplitude of the received signal. µsec/% of urea and the experimental result matches well with the
The constraint in the transmitter and receiver electronics design is simulation result. From simulation results, the sensitivity of the
the operating frequency of the measurement system. measurement system is found to be 0.193 µsec/% of urea. The
experiment is repeated 8 times for each concentration to find the
repeatability of the prototype and the result is shown as calibration
6. Results and Discussion curve in Fig 13.
In order to study the effect of temperature in DEF quality
The model of the measurement system is tested for its performance measurement system, experiments are conducted by varying the
by applying a sinusoidal signal having amplitude of 10 V with a P-P temperature of DEF (32.5% of urea) from 30ºC to 70ºC in steps of
frequency of 4 MHz. When this input signal is applied to the transmitter 10ºC and time of flight is measured. As temperature does not influence
model in Eq. (1), the output signal is obtained from receiver model in directly the transmission line model of DEF medium, the density of
Eq. (8) for the urea concentration ranging from 0-40% in steps of 0%, DEF is considered to study the temperature effect on measurement
10%, 20%, 30%, 31.5%, 32.5%, 33.5% and 40% and the results are system through simulation. The density of DEF medium is a major
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF PRECISION ENGINEERING AND MANUFACTURING Vol. 18, No. 8 AUGUST 2017 / 1091

factor in transmission line model which varies with respect to 2011.

temperature. The variation in density of DEF with temperature can be
5. Reimer, L. B. and Murphy, G. P., “Systems and Methods of
seen in Ref. 22 for a range of -20ºC to 100ºC. The density of DEF at
Determining a Quality and/or Depth of Diesel Exhaust Fluid,” WO
temperatures 30ºC to 70ºC is calculated which in turn influences the
Patent, 2012065109 A1, 2012.
transmission line model of DEF medium. In this way, the effect of
temperature on DEF concentration measurement is obtained. The 6. Pope, N. G., Veirs, D. K., and Claytor, T. N., “Fluid Density and
simulation results are compared with experimental results and are Concentration Measurement Using Noninvasive in Situ Ultrasonic
shown in Table 2. The temperature sensitivity of the measurement Resonance Interferometry,” Proc. of IEEE Ultrasonics Symposium,
system is found to be 0.0038 µsec/ºC. From simulation results, the pp. 855-858, 1992.
sensitivity of the measurement system to temperature is found to be
7. Chen, A. Q., Freear, S., and Cowell, D. M. J., “Measurement of
0.005 µsec/ºC.
Solid in Liquid Content Using Ultrasound Attenuation,” Proc. of 5th
Measurements are also carried out using the voltage to frequency
World Congress on Industrial Process Tomography, pp. 820-826,
converter electronics shown in Fig 10 to measure the variation in
2007.
amplitude of the received signal due to variation in the urea
concentration as shift in frequency. The voltage to frequency converter 8. Antlinger, H., Clara, S., Beigelbeck, R., Cerimovic, S., Keplinger, F.,
is designed with a central frequency of 1.5 kHz for 32.5% of urea and Jakoby, B., “An Acoustic Transmission Sensor for the
concentration in DEF and the results are presented in Table 3. Longitudinal Viscosity of Fluids,” Sensors and Actuators A:
Physical, Vol. 202, pp. 23-29, 2013.

9. Beigelbeck, R., Antlinger, H., Cerimovic, S., Clara, S., Keplinger, F.,
7. Conclusion
and Jakoby, B., “Resonant Pressure Wave Setup for Simultaneous
Sensing of Longitudinal Viscosity and Sound Velocity of Liquids,”
An ultrasonic based measurement system for measuring the urea
Measurement Science and Technology, Vol. 24, No. 12, Paper No.
concentration in diesel exhaust fluid was demonstrated. The
125101, 2013.
concentration was measured by measuring the time of fight of the
ultrasound waves and variation in the amplitude of ultrasound waves 10. San Emeterio, J. L., Azbaid, A., and Ramos, A., “Computer
received. The transmitter and receiver were designed and developed Modeling and Simulation of Thickness Mode Piezoelectric
along with the electronics. The fabricated prototype was tested for a Transducers Under Different Driving Conditions,” Ferroelectrics,
wide range of urea concentration (0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, 31.5%, 32.5%, Vol. 320, No. 1, pp. 153-159, 2005.
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Transducers Used in Broadband Ultrasonic Applications” in:
and temperature sensitivity of 0.0038 µsec/ºC.
Piezoelectric Transducers and Applications, Vives, A. A., (Ed.),
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