Pneumatic Conveying
Key Benefits Include:
-
determine flow conditions and how these vary through time
-
diagnose fault conditions
-
characterise mass flow
Introduction
Pneumatic conveying is a specific case of multiphase flow. A solid is transported along a pipe using air under pressure as the fluid. The air effectively carries the solid along the pipe. To enable the air to carry the solids they are normally in the form of very small particles and the air velocities are quite high. The challenge in designing and operating such systems is to ensure a sufficiently high air velocity and turbulence to ensure the fine solid particles do not “drop out” of the air steam and settle on the bottom of the pipe. Once settled the particles may agglomerate and become much more difficult to transport.
Solution
The measurement priority is to measure both the mass velocity along the pipe and the distribution across the pipe from outside the pipe. Any measurement system inside the pipe would disturb the flow; cause eddies and is a source of issues in its own right.
The m3000 is used with circular sensors for pneumatic conveying.
References
Jaworski AJ and Dyakowski T (2001) Application of electrical capacitance tomography for measurement of gas-solid flow characteristics in a pneumatic conveying system, Measurement Science and Technology, Vol. 12, 1109-1119
For more information about this paper, please contact ITS.
