Ultrasonic measurements of particle concentration in a multiphase flow

Abstract

Non-invasive measurements of multiphase flows have several important applications in industry. In this paper we present a method that uses pulsed ultrasound and two small receivers to determine the mass concentration of iron ore particles in water. The proposed method is based on the assumption that when ultrasound is transmitted through a scattering medium, the shape of the energy lobe changes. In this paper we use two receivers to monitor how the lobe changes. We show with experiments how the proposed method can be used to determine particle mass fractions from 3 percent and up, with an accuracy of ±1 percent of the mass fraction. In the experiments we used a 3 MHz transmitter and two receivers, one along the acoustical axis and the other 6 mm off-axis, to measure the mass fraction of a polydisperse suspension of iron ore powder in water.