Local particle mean velocity measurement using electrostatic sensor matrix in gas–solid two-phase pipe flow

Abstract

Particle velocity is one of the important parameters describing the flow state of gas–solid two-phase systems. In this paper, a novel spatial filtering method based on an electrostatic sensor matrix (ESM) is proposed for local particle mean velocity measurement in a gas–solid two-phase pipe flow. The sensing zone of each linear sensor array in the ESM is analyzed using a finite element method. The relationship between the frequency spectrum characteristics of the output signals of the ESM and local particle mean velocity is obtained. A local particle mean velocimeter based on the ESM is further designed and established. Performance of the velocimeter is evaluated on a gravity-fed particle flow rig. Experimental results demonstrate that the standard deviation of the measured velocities by the velocimeter is less than 11.1%.