Laser-Based Measurement of Gas–Liquid Two-Phase Flows in Micro and Mini Channels using Multiple Photodiode Arrangement

Abstract

Two-phase flow measurement is important in process and chemical industries. In the present work, a measurement technique for the characterization of two-phase flows using a laser and an arrangement of the photodiodes is proposed and tested. Two-phase flow experiments were carried out in 1.80, 3.14, and 4.68-mm-diameter glass tubes. A high-speed camera was used to analyze the various optical patterns formed by a stationary laser beam on a screen during bubbly, slug, and stratified flows, which have been discussed in detail in Navisa et al. (2015 Navisa, J., Balachandar, C., Arunkumar, S., and Venkatesan, M. (2015). Characterisation of gas-liquid two-phase flows using LASER patterns, Can. J. Chem. Eng., 93(9), 1678–1685.[Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]). Photodiodes are arranged on the screen based on high-speed camera recordings. A procedure is demonstrated to calculate the flow regime velocity and length based on the photodiode outputs. The designed nonintrusive instrumentation determines the two-phase flow parameters in real time for flow in optically transparent mini channels. The accuracy of the measurement technique and the limitations are also discussed.