Desenvolvimento de um sensor óptico para medidas de fração de vazio de um minicanal

Abstract

This work presents the development of an experimental methodology for measuring void fraction in an air-water two-phase flow, using optical sensor in a horizontal mini channel of 2.6 mm internal diameter. The measurement system consists of a light emitting diode (LED) of high brightness, light dependent resistor (LDR), amplifier circuit and data acquisition circuit. The experiments are performed with the air-water flow passing through a glass tube section positioned between the LED and LDR . According to the flow pattern, light is attenuated and impinges on LDR, changing its resistance and thus varying the voltage measured by data acquisition circuit. The tests are conducted with liquid volumetric flow of 160, 123 and 63 ml/min and gas volume of 0.05 and 0.1 ml and flow patterns tested and observed were bubbly and plug. During the tests images of the flow are registered, or the bubbles flow patterns, with a high-speed camera and the processing of these images is used to validate the optical sensor technique. The bubble areas, in pixels, are compared to area under the curve produced from optical sensor signal and a good correlation was found. A calibration curve of the sensor is obtained for bubbly flow pattern, and a correlation between void fraction and the tension is proposed. The results show that the optical sensor technique is adequate for average void fraction measurements in air-water two-phase flow and for flow patterns identification in mini channels.