Uwe Hampel

Capacitance wire-mesh sensor for fast measurement of phase fraction distributions

We introduce a new wire-mesh sensor based on capacitance (permittivity) measurements. The sensor can be used to measure transient phase fraction distributions in a flow cross-section, such as in a pipe or other vessel, and is able to discriminate fluids having different relative permittivity (dielectric constant) values in a multiphase flow. We designed and manufactured a prototype sensor which comprises two planes of 16 wires each. The wires are evenly distributed across the measuring cross-section, and measurement is performed at the wire crossings. Time resolution of the prototype sensor is 625 frames per second. Sensor and measuring electronics were evaluated showing good stability and accuracy in the capacitance measurement. The wire-mesh sensor was tested in a silicone oil/water two-phase bubbly flow.

Photogrammetric Techniques in Civil Engineering Material Testing and Structure Monitoring

Civil engineering material testing includes a wide range of applications requiring the determination of the threedimensional shape of an object and changes thereof. Large structure monitoring will often include the necessity of determining object deformations at a large number of points. Photogrammetric techniques offer a large potential for the solution of a wide range of measurement tasks in this field. A modular toolbox consisting of digital cameras, computer interfaces, illumination systems, calibration devices, combined with subpixel accuracy image measurement operators, multi-image matching techniques, and self-calibrating bundle adjustment in a suitable user interface, depicts a very powerful tool for tailoring custom-made solutions for material testing labs. Due to the wide range and the repetitive nature of measurements tasks in civil engineering, these applications could depict a significant future market for photogrammetry. This paper will briefly discuss the major hardware and software modules of a toolbox for civil engineering material testing and large structure monitoring. Based on several sample applications covering object dimensions from 10 cm to 500 meters, the potential of photogrammetric deformation measurement techniques will be shown. The major advantage of photogrammetric techniques can often be seen in the fact that they allow for highly automated measurements at a large number of points simultaneously. In many cases, object deformations can be determined at a precision in the order of 1:100,000 of the object dimension, based on off-theshelf hardware components.

An ultra fast electron beam x-ray tomography scanner

This paper introduces the design of an ultra fast x-ray tomography scanner based on electron beam technology. The scanner has been developed for two-phase flow studies where frame rates of 1 kHz and higher are required. Its functional principle is similar to that of the electron beam x-ray CT scanners used in cardiac imaging. Thus, the scanner comprises an electron beam generator with a fast beam deflection unit, a semicircular x-ray production target made of tungsten alloy and a circular x-ray detector consisting of 240 CZT elements with 1.5 mm × 1.5 mm × 1.5 mm size each. The design is optimized with respect to ultra fast imaging of smaller flow vessels, such as pipes or laboratory-scale chemical reactors. In that way, the scanner is capable of scanning flow cross-sections at a speed of a few thousand frames per second which is sufficient to capture flows of a few meters per second velocity.

High resolution gamma ray tomography scanner for flow measurement and non-destructive testing applications

We report on the development of a high resolution gamma ray tomography scanner that is operated with a Cs-137 isotopic source at 662 keV gamma photon energy and achieves a spatial image resolution of 0.2 line pairs/ mm at 10% modulation transfer function for noncollimated detectors. It is primarily intended for the scientific study of flow regimes and phase fraction distributions in fuel element assemblies, chemical reactors, pipelines, and hydrodynamic machines. Furthermore, it is applicable to nondestructive testing of larger radiologically dense objects. The radiation detector is based on advanced avalanche photodiode technology in conjunction with lutetium yttrium orthosilicate scintillation crystals. The detector arc comprises 320 single detector elements which are operated in pulse counting mode. For measurements at fixed vessels or plant components, we built a computed tomography scanner gantry that comprises rotational and translational stages, power supply via slip rings, and data communication to the measurement personal computer via wireless local area network.

Design of an optical tomograph for the investigation of single- and two-phase pipe flows

We describe a fast optical tomography sensor which has been designed for the investigation of single- and two-phase flows in smaller flow cross-sections, such as pipes and bubble columns. It enables image acquisition at frame rates of up to 4.5 kHz at roughly 2 mm image resolution. The sensor works similar to a conventional CT of the fourth generation with 256 light emitters and 32 light receivers arranged about the objects cross-section. The light emitters are sequentially flashed while the light receiver intensities are recorded synchronously. A primary area of application is single-phase flows with dye tracers. Another potential application is the investigation of bubbly two-phase flows at low gas fractions. Principle tests have been made for both problems.

Time resolving gamma-tomography for periodically changing gas fraction fields and its application to an axial pump

Abstract In the paper a novel non-intrusive tomographic method is presented to visualise the gas fraction distribution inside the rotating impeller of an axial pump delivering a two-phase flow. The device has been developed for an axial pump (inducer), which has an impeller with three helical blades rotating at 1500 rpm. Model fluid is air–water mixture created by a gas distributor upstream the pump inlet nozzle. The developed gamma-tomography set-up consists of a Cs-137 source and an arc of 64 scintillation detectors. Each of the detectors is connected to a number of counters grouped into banks. Each bank is active only during a 100 μs long interval of the rotation period, which corresponds to a well-defined angular interval of the impeller rotation. A trigger pulse, generated at the beginning of each revolution, forces the control unit to restart the counting process from the first bank. In this way, the device is able to measure ensemble averaged projections of the gamma absorption density distribution, which are resolved according to the rotating angle of the impeller. An image reconstruction by filtered back-projection provides density distributions inside the impeller. Void fraction distributions are visualised by means of differential tomography, i.e. by subtracting sets of projections obtained for two-phase operation and for plain liquid.

Ultrafast limited-angle-type x-ray tomography

The authors present an ultrafast electron beam x-ray computed tomography technique usable for imaging of fast processes, such as multiphase flows or moving parts in technical or biological objects. The setup consists of an electron beam unit with fast deflection capability and an ultrafast multielement x-ray detector and achieves 10000frames∕s image rate. Since full sampling of the Radon space requires an angular overlap of source path and detector which strongly decreases axial resolution, the authors devised a limited-angle-type tomography. As a demonstration they visualized the movement of particles and gas bubbles rising in a stagnant liquid.

Comparison between wire mesh sensor and gamma densitometry void measurements in two-phase flows

Wire mesh sensors (WMS) are fast imaging instruments that are used for gas–liquid and liquid–liquid two-phase flow measurements and experimental investigations. Experimental tests were conducted at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf to test both the capacitance and conductance WMS against a gamma densitometer (GD). A small gas–liquid test facility was utilized. This consisted of a vertical round pipe approximately 1 m in length, and 50 mm internal diameter. A 16 × 16 WMS was used with high spatial and temporal resolutions. Air–deionized water was the two-phase mixture. The gas superficial velocity was varied between 0.05 m s−1 and 1.4 m s−1 at two liquid velocities of 0.2 and 0.7 m s−1. The GD consisted of a collimated source and a collimated detector. The GD was placed on a moving platform close to the plane of wires of the sensor, in order to align it accurately using a counter mechanism, with each of the wires of the WMS, and the platform could scan the full section of the pipe. The WMS was operated as a conductivity WMS for a half-plane with eight wires and as a capacitance WMS for the other half. For the cross-sectional void (time and space averaged), along each wire, there was good agreement between WMS and the GD chordal void fraction near the centre of the pipe.

Fast image reconstruction for optical absorption tomography in media with radially symmetric boundaries

In this paper we present a reconstruction algorithm to invert the linearized problem in optical absorption tomography for objects with radially symmetric boundaries. This is a relevant geometry for functional volume imaging of body regions that are sensitive to ionizing radiation, e.g., breast and testis. From the principles of diffuse light propagation in scattering media we derive the governing integral equations describing the effects of absorption variations on changes in the measurement data. Expansion of these equations into a Neumann series and truncation of higher-order terms yields the linearized forward imaging operator. For the proposed geometry we utilize an invariance property of this operator, which greatly reduces the problem dimensionality. This allows us to compute the inverse by singular value decomposition and consequently to apply regularization techniques based on the knowledge of the singular value spectrum. The inversion algorithm is highly efficient computing slice images as fast as convolution-backprojection algorithms in computed tomography (CT). To demonstrate the capacity of the inversion scheme we present reconstruction results for synthetic and phantom measurement data.

A Novel Needle Probe Based on High-Speed Complex Permittivity Measurements for Investigation of Dynamic Fluid Flows

For the investigation of multiphase or multicomponent flows, which are of interest, for instance, in oil extraction and processing or in chemical engineering, there are only few suitable measuring techniques. For this reason, we have developed a high-speed complex permittivity needle probe. Such probes are able to distinguish the different phases or components of a flow by measuring the complex value of the electrical permittivity at a high data rate (up to 20 000 samples/s). The performance of the system, as well as its ability to differentiate organic substances, has been analyzed. A time-resolved experiment in an oil-water-gas flow, as well as a two-substance mixing experiment in a stirred tank, is presented.