Caracterização do escoamento bifásico ar-água por meio de sensores ópticos

Abstract

This paper presents an air-water two-phase flow characterization in a small diameter tube of 2.6 mm internal diameter for plug and isolated flow, using four pairs of optical sensors: two of them consist in IR emitter whit different wavelength and photodiodes receivers, whit distinct reception active areas, the other one is a tube liquid sensor based in an IR emitter and a phototransistor receiver and the last one is a LDR as receiver and a white LED emitter. The tests were performed for 50, 75 and 100 ml/min for water flow and 0.1, 0.06 and 0.02 ml for air volume, capturing sensors signals and its respective images in a high-speed camera. The results obtained where void fraction, sensors calibrations curves, a comparison between the four sensors response and bubbly velocity. The sensor calibration process relates void fraction and sensor signal. Images and sensor signal showed that is possible to recognize plug pattern for air volumes of 0.10 and 0.06 ml and isolated bubbly pattern for 0.02 ml. Signal sensors comparison allowed to identify that the tube liquid sensor is better in recognizing a bubbly-plug pattern. The sensors verification has compared the areas measured by the sensor and the image, the EMR results are between -9.6% and 4.49%. The worst results are for air volume of 0.02 ml. LDR sensor response is slower than the others sensors are during phase changing, since the area measured by it has been higher than the other sensors. On the other hand, tube liquid sensor showed to be faster sensor in phase changing. Despite sensors differences, four calibrations curves were obtaining and defined by second order exponentials whit R2 between 0.928 and 0.897 (LDR). Finally, the sensors in pairs allowed to measure mean velocity of bubbles for different water flow, resulting in EMR between -4.92 and 2.17%.