Effect of particle size on a two-phase turbulent jet

The effect of particle size on two-phase turbulent jet flow structure is studied in the present experimental investigation. Polystyrene solid particles of 210, 460, and 780 μm were used. The particles' mass loading ratios ranged from 0 to 3.6. The flow Reynolds number was 2 ‘ 10⁴, which was based on the pipe nozzle diameter and the fluid-phase centerline velocity at the nozzle exit. A two-color laser-Doppler anemometer (LDA), combined with the amplitude discrimination method and the velocity filter method, was employed for measurement. The measurement range of the jet flow was from the initial pipe exit to 90D downstream. Results are presented for the mean velocities of particle and fluid phases, the flow's turbulent intensities and the flow's Reynolds stresses. The energy spectra and the correlation functions of the two-phase jet flow were also obtained by using another one-component He-Ne LDA system.     

The effect of astigmatism due to beam refractions on the formation of the measurement volume in LDA measurements

The accuracy of LDA measurements depends on the optical alignment of the laser beams. Improperly designed optical systems lead to fringe distortion in the measurement volume and in earlier investigations this effect has always been taken as the main cause of optical inaccuracy in LDA measurements. In the present work a different cause of fringe distortion is considered: astigmatism due to beam refractions. A quantitative theory for the astigmatism of laser beams is derived for both single and multiple refractions. Parameter calculations with regard to the size of the astigmatism effect have been carried out. It is shown that astigmatism is a relevant parameter which influences the fringe uniformity and fringe distortion in an LDA measurement volume and affects the measurement accuracy of measurements in internal flow. The equations derived enable the change in cross sections of the refracted laser beams to be determined. The spatial deviations of the diverse focusing points of refracted laser beams relative to the position of the LDA measurement volume are found to depend strongly on the incident angle of the beams and therefore on the off-axis alignment angle of the LDA probe (off-axis from the normal to the flow-wall-interface).     

Precise flow rate measurements of natural gas under high pressure with a laser Doppler velocity profile sensor

This paper reports about the first application of a laser Doppler velocity profile sensor for precise flow rate measurements of natural gas under high pressure. The profile sensor overcomes the limitations of conventional laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) namely the effect of spatial averaging and the effect of fringe spacing variation (virtual turbulence). It uses two superposed, fan-like interference fringe systems to determine the axial position of a tracer particle inside the LDA’s measurement volume. Consequently, a spatial resolution of about 1 μm can be achieved and the effect of virtual turbulence is nearly eliminated. These features predestine the profile sensor for flow rate measurements with high precision. Velocity profile measurements were performed at the German national standard for natural gas, one of the world′s leading test facilities for precision flow rate measurements. As a result, the velocity profile of the nozzle flow could be resolved more precisely than with a conventional LDA. Moreover, the measured turbulence intensity of the core flow was of 0.14% mean value and 0.07% minimum value, which is significantly lower than reference measurements with a conventional LDA. The paper describes the performed measurements, gives a discussion and shows possibilities for improvements. As the main result, the goal of 0.1% flow rate uncertainty seems possible by an application of the profile sensor.     

Effective particle size range in laser-Doppler anemometry

The present paper points out that all existing laser-Doppler anemometer systems do not only operate within a finite range of Doppler frequencies but also work within a relatively narrow range of signal amplitudes. It is shown that this corresponds to a finite, and usually to an extremely small, range of particle diameters which contributes to the final LDA measurements. Because of this, the particle size distribution has to be matched to the LDA-system used for measuring particle velocities. If this is not taken into account in particle seeding, low data rates will result in spite of very high particle passage rates through the measuring control volume. This is shown experimentally and is supported by theoretical considerations.The present investigation results in conclusions regarding optimum particle size distributions for laser-Doppler anemometry. If fluid velocity measurements are attempted rather than particle velocity measurements, the particles still have to satisfy well known size requirements that are flow, fluid and particle density dependent.The experimental study employs a combined optical system for simultaneous measurements of particle velocity, particle size and particle concentration. The system is used to measure those particles of a spectrum of oil droplets that contribute to the validated signal output of counter and transient recorder based LDA-electronic signal processing systems.     

Coupling Eulerian‐Lagrangian method of air‐particle two‐phase flow with population balance equations to simulate the evolution of vehicle exhaust plume

In this paper, we present a new numerical scheme to describe the dynamic evolution of multiphase polydisperse systems in terms of time, space, and properties by coupling the Eulerian‐Lagrangian method for air‐particle two‐phase flow and population balance equations to describe particle property evolution due to microbehaviors (eg, aggregation, breakage, and growth). This coupling scheme was used to comprehensively simulate the two‐phase flow structure, particle size spectrum, particle number, and volume concentrations. These were characterized by a high‐resolution particle tracking using the Lagrangian approach and the high precision of moments of the particle size spectrum by solving the population balance equation with the quadrature method of moments. The algorithm of the coupling scheme was incorporated into the open source computational fluid dynamics software OpenFOAM to simulate the dynamic evolution of vehicle exhaust plume. The impacts of vehicle velocity, exhaust temperature, and aggregation efficiency on the distribution of auto exhaust particles in space and changes in their properties were analyzed. The results indicate that the particle number concentration, volume concentration, and average diameter of particles in the vehicle exhaust plume could be strongly affected by the plume structure and flow properties.     

Particle concentration and particle size measurements in a particle laden turbulent free jet

Particle concentration and particle size distribution curves have been measured for particle-laden jets of silica gel powder for different loading ratios and air velocities using a Laser Diffraction Method (LDM) and a tomography data transform technique. It was found that the mean particle size at the outer edge of the jet decreases with increasing gas velocity, and that the jet widens with decreasing particle concentration and increasing gas velocity.     

Error estimation of laser-Doppler anemometry measurements in fluids with spatial inhomogeneities of the refractive index

We report a combined experimental and theoretical investigation of the influence of spatial non-uniformities of the refractive index on the accuracy of laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) measurements in transparent fluids. One LDA beam is guided through heated air of a thermal boundary layer near a heated vertical flat plate. It is found that the hot air is deflecting the beam because of a modification of the refractive index n in the fluid. This deflection causes three effects: (1) spatial displacement of beam intersection, (2) waist mismatch in the measurement volume and (3) variation in interference fringe distance. With the help of a rotating disk calibration system the resulting displacement of the LDA measurement volume and the Doppler frequency variation is systematically studied at different temperatures. Using a simple model of beam propagation under the influence of well-defined temperature inhomogeneities, the displacement of measurement volume and change in Doppler frequency are calculated and are found to be in agreement with the experimental observations. The results provide a rational framework for an assessment of the accuracy of LDA data in arbitrary transparent fluids with non-uniform refractive index.     

Irregular particle sizing using speckle pattern for continuous wave laser applications

We present velocity power spectra computed by the so-called direct method from burst-type laser Doppler anemometer (LDA) data, both measured in a turbulent round jet and generated in a computer. Using today’s powerful computers, we have been able to study more properties of the computed spectra than was previously possible, and we noted some unexpected features of the spectra that we now attribute to the unavoidable influence of a finite measurement volume (MV). The most prominent effect, which initially triggered these studies, was the appearance of damped oscillations in the higher frequency range, starting around the cutoff frequency due to the finite size of the MV. Using computer-generated data mimicking the LDA data, these effects have previously been shown to appear due to the effect of dead time, i.e., the finite time during which the system is not able to acquire new measurements. These dead times can be traced back to the fact that the burst-mode LDA cannot measure more than one signal burst at a time. Since the dead time is approximately equal to the residence time for a particle traversing a measurement volume, we are dealing with widely varying dead times, which, however, are assumed to be measured for each data point. In addition, the detector and processor used in the current study introduce a certain amount of fixed processing and data transfer times, which further contribute to the distortion of the computed spectrum. However, we show an excellent agreement between a measured spectrum and our modeled LDA data, thereby confirming the validity of our model for the LDA burst processor.     

On the overestimation of the flow turbulence due to fringe distortion in LDA measurement volumes

 Fringe distortion with linear longitudinal variation in fringe spacing over the length of LDA measurement volume has been considered to influence the accuracy of flow measurement. The overestimation of the mean velocity and especially of the flow turbulence due to fringe distortion has been derived to be a function both of the fringe distortion number (which is a purely geometrical parameter of the measurement volume) and the flow turbulence to be measured. Against the usual expectation, it has been shown that the overestimation of the flow turbulence due to fringe distortion in the measurement volume could be neglected. Only for very low turbulence intensity dose the error become significant. As a reference this result could be used to estimate measurement errors which occur in the presence of other types of fringe distortion. Received: 2 December 1997/Accepted: 2 May 1998     

Optical limits of particle concentration for multi-dimensional particle sizing techniques in fluid mechanics

 The interferometric particle imaging and the global phase Doppler techniques for multi-dimensional particle sizing are based on out-of-focus images of the particles illuminated in laser light sheets of finite width. For a given optical arrangement, an increase in particle number concentration will eventually lead to overlapping particle images on the recording medium, and this in turn will degrade or even prohibit the correct processing of individual particle images for size. The probability of overlapping images should therefore be minimized, which places constraints on the design of the optical system. These constraints are rigorously derived, using Poisson statistics to describe the particle spatial distribution in the flow. The main result consists of an overlap probability coefficient as a function of number density and the optical parameters of the system. However, the resolution of the third position coordinate normal to the laser sheet and the measurement size range also result from this analysis. These results are a prerequisite for designing such systems. Received: 25 May 2001 / Accepted: 12 October 2001     

Distortion of LDA fringe pattern by tracer particles

For precise flow velocity measurements laser Doppler anemometry (LDA) is wide-spread in use in the laboratories of industry and universitarian research institutions. The LDA method has the advantage of being not intrusive and able to discriminate between forward and reverse velocities. So far, laser Doppler anemometry is believed to be one of the most accurate flow measuring techniques. However, recent investigations have shown that the period lengths of LDA signal bursts are not constant within an individual burst. This can induce an additional scatter in the signal frequency and in the determination of the flow velocity. Until now, the reason for the period variations has not been investigated in detail although the problem was observed before. This paper describes experimental investigations which show that the particle passage through the laser beams shortly before the point of superposition, i.e. the LDA measuring volume, yields a distorted LDA fringe pattern. Thus, the signal period length from an individual particle, passing the center of the measuring volume at the same time, varies according to the distortion of the fringe spacing.     

Effect of particle size on nonlinear wave propagation in a fluidized bed

The effect of particle size (Archimedes number) on the propagation of a kinematic particle concentration wave in a fluidized bed is investigated. The dependence of the characteristic wave velocity on the porosity of the bed (particle concentration) and the Archimedes number (or the Reynolds number for flow past individual particles of the dispersed phase) is determined. The evolution of a nonlinear perturbation of the bed porosity is investigated and the formation of discontinuities in the concentration of the dispersed phase is studied in relation to the particle size (Archimedes number). It is shown, in particular, that, as distinct from a bed of small particles, in a bed of large particles with quadratic interphase interaction only compression discontinuities can be formed. The results obtained can be used to analyze the formation of inhomogeneities (slugs and bubbles) in a fluidized bed in relation to the particle size.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 3, pp. 96–100, May–June, 1987.     

Seeding of high temperature air flow

Seeding of high temperature air flows is problematic because common seeding materials can ignite and may pose a threat for human health in case of inhalation. Sodium chloride is proposed as a seeding material to avoid these problems. The generation of crystals using an ultrasonic atomizer is described and the measured particle size distribution is presented. The described method has the additional advantage that the particle size can easily be adjusted. This allows the operator to comply with the experimental requirements in terms of resolvable frequencies. The described method has been successfully applied to LDA measurements in a 500°C air flow.     

Fast quantitative processing of particle image velocimetry photographs by a whole-field filtering technique

A fast quantitative processing of particle image velocimetry photographs by a whole-field spatial filtering technique is described. Photographs are observed through a conventional filtering setup. This produces fringe patterned images with each fringe corresponding to a fixed value of one velocity component. These images are acquired with a CCD camera and digitally processed to retrieve the fringe centerline positions. The interpolation of these data provides the velocity value on a grid of regularly spaced points.Photographs taken from a Rayleigh-Bénard convective flow have been processed with this technique and with a previously reported point-by-point technique. Results from both techniques compare well.This work was supported by Diputación General de Aragón under Grant No. PCB6-90     

Large-scale tomographic particle image velocimetry using helium-filled soap bubbles

To measure large-scale flow structures in air, a tomographic particle image velocimetry (tomographic PIV) system for measurement volumes of the order of one cubic metre is developed, which employs helium-filled soap bubbles (HFSBs) as tracer particles. The technique has several specific characteristics compared to most conventional tomographic PIV systems, which are usually applied to small measurement volumes. One of them is spot lights on the HFSB tracers, which slightly change their position, when the direction of observation is altered. Further issues are the large particle to voxel ratio and the short focal length of the used camera lenses, which result in a noticeable variation of the magnification factor in volume depth direction. Taking the specific characteristics of the HFSBs into account, the feasibility of our large-scale tomographic PIV system is demonstrated by showing that the calibration errors can be reduced down to 0.1 pixels as required. Further, an accurate and fast implementation of the multiplicative algebraic reconstruction technique, which calculates the weighting coefficients when needed instead of storing them, is discussed. The tomographic PIV system is applied to measure forced convection in a convection cell at a Reynolds number of 530 based on the inlet channel height and the mean inlet velocity. The size of the measurement volume and the interrogation volumes amount to 750 mm × 450 mm × 165 mm and 48 mm × 48 mm × 24 mm, respectively. Validation of the tomographic PIV technique employing HFSBs is further provided by comparing profiles of the mean velocity and of the root mean square velocity fluctuations to respective planar PIV data.     

In-line imaging measurements of particle size,velocity and concentration in a particulate two-phase flow

A novel method is developed for in-line measurements of particle size, velocity and concentration in a dilute, particulate two-phase flow based on trajectory image processing. The measurement system consists of a common industrial CCD camera, an inexpensive LED light and a telecentric lens. In this work, the image pre-processing steps include stitching, illumination correction, binarization, denoising, and the elimination of unreal and defocused particles. A top-hat transformation is found to be very effective for the binarization of images with non-uniform background illumination. Particle trajectories measured within a certain exposure time are used to directly obtain particle size and velocity. The particle concentration is calculated by using the statistics of recognized particles within the field of view. We validate our method by analyzing experiments in a gas-droplet cyclone separator. This in-line image processing method can significantly reduce the measurement cost and avoid the data inversion process involved in the light scattering method.     

Measurement of local size and velocity probability density distributions in two-phase suspension flows by Laser-Doppler technique

A technique is presented for the simultaneous measurement of the local number and velocity probability densities of a dilute two-phase suspension which has a distribution of particle sizes and a predominate direction of flow orientation such as in the cases of pipe and boundary-layer flows. It is shown that by a suitable scheme of discrimination on the amplitude as well as the residence time and frequency of the individual Laser-Doppler bursts, one can obtain the statistics on the size number density distribution and, for each size range, velocity distribution of the particulate phase together with the velocity probability distribution of the fluid phase.Results have been obtained for experiments conducted on a laminar uniform flow and a turbulent shear flow of a dilute glass particle-water suspension having a particle size distribution. Calibration needed for the scheme was accomplished by analyzing particle size and number density distribution data obtained from a Coulter particle sizing counter on a sample taken with an isokinetic probe.     

In-line imaging measurements of particle size,velocity and concentration in a particulate two-phase flow

A novel method is developed for in-line measurements of particle size, velocity and concentration in a dilute, particulate two-phase flow based on trajectory image processing. The measurement system consists of a common industrial CCD camera, an inexpensive LED light and a telecentric lens. In this work, the image pre-processing steps include stitching, illumination correction, binarization, denoising, and the elimination of unreal and defocused particles. A top-hat transformation is found to be very effective for the binarization of images with non-uniform background illumination. Particle trajectories measured within a certain exposure time are used to directly obtain particle size and velocity. The particle concentration is calculated by using the statistics of recognized particles within the field of view. We validate our method by analyzing experiments in a gas-droplet cyclone separator. This in-line image processing method can significantly reduce the measurement cost and avoid the data inversion process involved in the light scattering method.     

Turbulent stresses and particle break-up criteria in particle-laden pipe flows

Three-dimensional particle tracking velocimetry (3D-PTV) is applied to particle-laden pipe flows at Reynolds number 10,300, based on the bulk velocity and the pipe diameter. The effects of flow direction (upward or downward) and mean concentration (in the range 0.5 × 10⁻⁵–3.2 × 10⁻⁵) on the production of turbulence are assessed for inertial particles with a Stokes number equal to 2.3, based on the particle relaxation time and viscous scales. The turbulence production and the Kolmogorov constant, both measured for particle laden flows in upflow and downflow, allowed for the derivation of a break-up criterion as a function of the radial coordinate. This criterion predicts the maximum possible particle size before break-up may occur. It is shown that the maximum particle size is bigger at the pipe centerline than in the near-wall zone by more than a factor of 5. Flow direction affects the particle concentration profile, with wall peaking in downflow and core peaking in upflow. This affects both the residence time and the maximum particle size, the latter by 7%.