Two phase flow imaging using infra red tomography

Data on flow regimes is important in measuring and analyzing industrial process flow. This paper presents an investigation on the use of an infra red tomography system using 16 × 16 infra red sensors to monitor solid particles conveyed by a pneumatic conveyor in a vertical gravity flow rig. The sensor output is processed by a signal conditioning circuit followed by a data acquisition system before being displayed by a computer. The operation of the whole measurement is controlled by a digital timing controller. Four types of flow models i.e. single pixel, multiple pixels, half flow and full flow were experimented with. The system has been tested with solid particles at various flow rates using several algorithms and has shown to be capable of providing images of the flow concentration profiles.