A reliable method for determining the measurement volume size and particle mass fluxes using phase-Doppler anemometry

Abstract

A reliable method for the calibration of the measurement volume cross-section has been developed, in order to correct the particle size distribution measured by a phase-Doppler anemometer (PDA) with respect to the counting bias in favour of the large particles. Furthermore, this method allows the measurement of particle concentration or mass flux with high accuracy in two-dimensional two-phase flows. A comparison of the mass flow rate obtained by the integration of the mass flux measured in a water spray by applying this method with the global mass balance showed a difference of about 5%. The basis of the present method is the detection of the amplitude of the filtered Doppler signal in connection with the particle size measured by the PDA. The detection process is performed using an electronic circuit which validates the Doppler burst and has additionally the advantage that the highest amplitude portion of the burst can be selected for digitizing, acquisition and subsequent processing. Therefore, this method has the great advantage that the processed part of the burst has the highest signal-to-noise ratio which results in high accuracies for frequency and phase estimation.