Simultaneous measurement of liquid film thickness and temperature on metal surface

Abstract

The flow and evaporation of liquid films widely exist in various industrial fields. The investigation into liquid films is essential to design and optimize the relevant industrial processes. In this work, a simultaneous measurement method of liquid film thickness and temperature on metal surface based on diode laser absorption spectroscopy (DLAS) was proposed, and a corresponding measurement system was developed. First, static liquid films of 200–800 μm on the horizontal metal plate were studied, ultrasonic pulse-echo method (UPEM) and thermocouple were employed to compare with DLAS data. It revealed that the relative deviations of film thicknesses and temperatures measured by different methods were 3.3% and 2.0%, respectively. Furthermore, the evaporation processes of static liquid films were investigated. For the liquid films with different initial thicknesses (490.0/624.6/744.5 μm), the average relative deviations of the film thicknesses and temperatures measured by different methods were 0.1%/0.8%/4.1% and 0.1%/2.6%/3.0%, respectively. Finally, the flow processes of liquid films at different initial temperatures (40.0/60.0/80.0 °C) on the inclined metal plate were researched. It was found that the variation trends of the liquid film thicknesses and temperatures measured by different methods were in good agreement. In the stable stages of flow processes, the average relative deviations of liquid film thicknesses and temperatures measured by different methods were 9.0%/8.4%/5.1% and 3.6%/1.2%/2.5%, respectively. This work is helpful to understand the heat and mass transfer mechanisms in the evaporation and flow processes of liquid films.