The article discusses the need for highly accurate sensors to determine the volume and the angular
orientation sensors of the liquid surfaces in fuel tanks of the upper stages of spacecrafts. Existing sensors of
this type do not always meet the stringent accuracy and reliability requirements, especially under conditions
of indeterminately orientated liquid surfaces. The principle of construction and design of such sensors for
axially symmetric tanks (spherical, cylindrical, lenticular, etc.) is proposed, which can provide simultaneous
measurements of the amount of liquid in the tank and the angular orientation of the liquid surface with high
accuracy under the specifi ed conditions. This sensor consists of one linear and several ring sensing elements
immersed in the liquid and designed to sense the immersion depth and relay this information as a signal. The
linear sensing element is installed along an axis passing through the tank center and the intake port, while
the ring elements are installed in a plane perpendicular to this axis, separated from each other by a distance
determined by a specifi c error. The operation of the linear and ring elements could either be thermoresistive
or capacitive in nature. In the latter case, the sensing elements may take the form of resonant circuits
consisting of one linear and several ring capacitors, to which inductors are connected. Algorithms have
been developed for converting the resonant frequencies of at least two sensing elements from the group of
linear and ring elements into the parameters of interest. After estimating the contribution of various factors
such as the sensor design discreteness, the geometric spread of the tank and its sensing elements, and the
accuracy of the individual sensing elements themselves, we found that the accuracy of the individual sensing
elements was the primary factor limiting the accuracy of the sensors. When the error of these elements was
reduced to 10−3, the corresponding errors in the measured angle and volume were no more than 2.2∙10−2
and 3.2∙10−3, respectively. The proposed sensor can be used to measure the parameters of interest in objects
characterized by an undetermined spatial orientation such as spacecrafts, and sea vessels during heeling.
Keywords: volume, liqel, angular orientation, liquid, spherical tank, upper stage, linear sensing element,
ring sensing element, algorithm, capacitance, resonant frequency, dielectric permittivity, error.