Acoustic Monitor for Liquid Solid Slurries Measurements at Low Weight Fractions

Abstract

The principal objective of the project is to develop an acoustic probe for determining the volume fraction of particles in a flowing suspension. This will include testing the theory of acoustic wave propagation in suspensions and demonstrating the application of the probe by installing it on a flow loop through which a suspension is flowing and determining the particle volume fraction. The signal from the probe must be processed such that the noise arising from the presence of the gas bubbles, if present in the system, is removed to yield an accurate estimate of the particle volume fraction. Once the probe is developed and tested successfully at Syracuse University, it is to be installed and tested in the flow loop at Oak Ridge National Laboratories for surrogate slurries for the Hanford Nuclear site. Particular attention is to be given to testing suspensions with low particle volume fractions since slurries to be transported in nuclear waste processing will have low particle volume fractions.