Measurement of slurry distributions using wire-mesh sensor and high resolution gamma ray tomography

1E. N. dos Santos, 1A. N. Wrasse, 2R. E. M. Morales, 3, 4M. Neumann, 3S. Reinecke, 3A. Bieberle,

3E. Schleicher, 3, 4U. Hampel, 1M. J. da Silva

1 Department of Electrical Engineering (CPGEI), Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR), Curitiba-PR, Brazil

e.n.santos@ieee.org

2 Department of Mechanical Engineering (DAMEC), Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná (UTFPR), Curitiba-PR, Brazil

3 Institute of Fluid Dynamics, Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR), Dresden, Germany

4 Technische Universität Dresden, Institute of Power Engineering, AREVA Endowed Chair of Imaging Techniques in Energy and Process Engineering, Dresden, Germany

ABSTRACT

In this work solid-liquid distributions in a stirred tank have been quantitatively determined. The paper compares two different imaging techniques providing images at high spatial resolutions. The wire- mesh sensor offers cross-sectional liquid holdup distribution imaging at a high speed of 4000 frames/s and spatial resolution of 6.25 mm. As a non-invasive technique high-resolution gamma-ray computed tomography (HireCT) operated in time-averaging rotation-synchronized CT scanning mode has been used as a reference modality to evaluate the wire-mesh sensor measurements. Silica sand was used as solid phase and stirred with water (slurry flow). The impeller stirring velocity was varied from 600 rpm to 1400 (stepwise in 200 rpm) totalizing 5 velocities conditions. Data from both imaging modalities are compared utilizing different analysing methods and showed good agreement within a 10% error boundaries for averaged solid distributions.

Keywords gamma ray tomography, solid concentration measurement, slurry flow, wire-mesh sensor