Evaluation of hot-film,dual optical and Pitot tube probes for liquid–liquid two-phase flow measurements

An experimental study of kerosene–water upward two-phase flow in a vertical pipe was carried out using hot-film, dual optical and Pitot tube probes to measure the water, kerosene drops and mixture velocities. Experiments were conducted in a vertical pipe of 77.8 mm inner diameter at 4.2 m from the inlet (L/D=54). The tests were carried out for constant superficial water velocities of 0.29, 0.59 and 0.77 m/s (flow rates = 83, 167 and 220 l/min) and volume fractions of 4.2%, 9.2%, 18.6% and 28.2%. The Fluent 6.3.26 was used to model the single and two-phase flow and to reproduce the results for the experimental study. Two methods were used to evaluate the accuracy of the probes for the measurement of the velocities of water, drops and mixture for two-phase flow: (i) comparison of measured local velocities with predictions from the CFD simulation; (ii) comparison between the area-averaged velocities calculated from the integration of the local measurements of water, drops and mixture velocities and velocities calculated from flow meters’ measurements.The results for single phase flow measured using Pitot tube and hot-film probe agree well with CFD predictions. In the case of two-phase flow, the water and drops velocities were measured by hot-film and dual optical probes respectively. The latter was also used to measure the volume fraction. These three measured parameters were used to calculate the mixture velocity. The Pitot tube was also used to measure the mixture velocity by applying the same principle used for single phase flow velocity. Overall the mixture local velocity measured by Pitot tube and that calculated from hot-film and dual optical probe measurements agreed well with Fluent predictions. The discrepancy between the mixture area-averaged velocity and velocity calculated from flow meters was less than 10% except for one test case. It is concluded that the combined hot-film and optical approach can be used for water and drop velocity measurements with good accuracy for the flow conditions considered in this study. The Pitot tube can also be used for the measurement of mixture velocities for conditions of mixture velocities greater than 0.4 m/s. The small discrepancy between the predictions and experimental data from the present study and literature demonstrated that both instrumentation and CFD simulations have the potential for two-phase flow investigation and industrial applications.     

Application of spherical-rod float image velocimetry for evaluating high flow rate in mountain rivers

Spherical-rod float image velocimetry (SFIV) is a convenient technique combining the positive functions of a rod float velocimetry (RFV) and large-scale particle image velocimetry (LSPIV) for measuring high flow rate in mountain rivers. The SFIV is the principle that the sphere allowing little image distortion according to the orientation is used as a floating tracer for LSPIV. The drifting distances of a spherical-rod float were calculated by geometrical interpretation of spherical images recorded in an experimental open channel and mountain rivers. The depth-reflecting velocities estimated by SFIV in the rivers as in the open channel coincided approximately with the velocities by visual observation from river bank despite of the long shooting distance, weather impact, and flow complicated by topography and bed materials. The velocity coefficients obtained from the experimental channel were used to evaluate depth-averaged velocity for river discharges. The high discharges estimated by SFIV in mountain rivers distributed mostly within the range of the rating curve established by RFV. The results show that the safe and efficient SFIV is a highly applicable technique in mountain rivers with the high flow rate and complex flow. In order to practically use SFIV in mountain rivers, additional studies are required for velocity coefficients depending on the water depth and draft.     

Image-based river discharge estimation by merging heterogeneous data with information entropy theory

An information entropy based approach for the discharge measurements is evaluated for the gaging of the Isère river at the Grenoble university campus. Over a four month period, six discharge measurements were made using a vessel-mounted aDcp. Simultaneously, particle tracking velocimetry (PTV) from video images was used to estimate surface velocities. The surface velocities are projected along the regularly surveyed river section of the Isère-Campus gaging station. The vertical velocity profile at each stream-wise location is approximated by a 1D entropy profile. Information entropy 1D velocity vertical profile depends on two parameters which are fitted using aDcp and surface velocity measurements. The inclusion of the surface velocities reduces the dispersion of the estimated entropy parameters. The measurements show that the two parameters are linearly related with a slope that is stage dependent and thus, surface velocity dependent. From there, the information entropy theory for 1D velocity distribution offers a protocol by which surface velocities only are used to compute the discharges. The protocol is calibrated with both aDcp and surface velocity measurements. It is finally validated with several events during which only surface velocities are measured. For the high water flood event the estimated discharge falls within 2% of the one estimated with the rating curve of the gaging station.     

Image-based migration velocity and dune length in clear water rivers

This work presents a novel way of measuring image-based migration velocity and dune length in clear water rivers. These results, together with empirical formulations, can be used to estimate bedload sediment transport with a high-spatial resolution. Image processing relies on the non-intrusive image-based technique called Space-Time Image Velocimetry (STIV). STIV consists in visualizing pixel intensity variation in time over a defined line. This technique was originally applied to hydraulics in order to characterize streamwise surface velocities in rivers. In this case, STIV is used to measure dune migration velocity and length in a shallow river with clear water in Córdoba Province, Argentina. Image processing procedures are detailed, including pre-processing and rectification. Results are then compared with measurements obtained from Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers. Finally, as an appendix, using the measured data and empirical equations, an estimation of bedload sediment transport is performed using both techniques.     

Portable unmanned surface vehicle that automatically measures flow velocity and direction in rivers

We developed an automatic measurement system for flow velocity and direction in natural rivers using an autonomously controlled unmanned surface vehicle (USV). Oncoming mainstream velocity was measured by the propulsion force required for the USV in order to preserve the position at a measurement point. To conduct such a field mission, the system runs by changing four characteristic control stages: 1) calculation of the tentative propulsion force, 2) navigation to the target point, 3) velocity measurement by staying at the target, and 4) detection of flow direction by flowing downstream. More than 20 indoor tests were conducted under several hydraulic conditions by varying streamwise velocity, and the calibration formula was obtained by interrelating the oncoming velocity magnitude with the propulsion force required to remain at the target. The attitude control was provided with side thrusters to improve the yaw stability of the USV in the oncoming current. The adjunctive work of the side thrusters was very effective. Field tests were conducted to examine the reliability and accuracy of the present automatic flow measurements in a river. Both local velocity and direction in the river flow were measured well by the USV. Error analysis was conducted by comparing with the existing velocimetry results, and the USV was found to possess a sufficient ability to meet practical performance for the flow measurement in a calm river with about 1 m/s velocity.     

Fibreoptical spatial filter velocimeter for measurement of local liquid velocity

The spatial filtering velocimetry is the basis of the new optical hydrometric measuring probe. Like a laser Doppler velocimeter, the hydrometric probe determines the velocity of tracer particles in the liquid flow. Essential parts of the hydrometric probe are a differential fibreoptical spatial filter and an illumination source. The tracer particles are imaged onto the spatial filter by a shadow projection with a parallel light beam. The hydrometric probe can be used for velocity and flow measurements in pipes and river flows. The technique permits the design of robust and low cost optical hydrometric probe which can be used for different hydrometric applications.     

The measurement of discharge using a commercial digital video camera in irrigation canals

This paper presents measurements of the discharge by image techniques on the surface velocity field and water stage in irrigation canals. The velocity and stage gauge are obtained from a commercial digital video camera. The time series of the surface velocity and stage were collected simultaneously. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) was used to determine the surface velocities in the irrigation canal. PIV proceeds by using bubbles floating on the water surface as tracer particles, and making a cross-correlation analysis between two continuous images. The whole surface velocity distribution in the irrigation canals can be obtained. The water stage of the canal is obtained from the digital video camera images by making use of image segments to separate the stage gauge and the background. The discharge is computed by using the surface velocities and water stage via open channel velocity distribution theory. Comparing the discharge measured using image techniques with Parshall flume data shows that the differences are less then 5%. The results suggest that the image measurement techniques developed can be used in applications to estimate the discharge in irrigation canals effectively.     

Streamwise velocity distribution in irregular shaped channels having composite bed roughness

Applications of the proposed model by Maghrebi which is able to predict the isovel contours quantitatively in a section of an open or closed channel both with irregular shapes and roughness, have been presented [Maghrebi MF, Rahimpour M. A simple model for estimation of dimensionless isovel contours in open-channels. Flow Meas Instrum 2005;16(6):347–52]. In the present paper, the model is applied to a flume with a composite roughness as well as to rivers with irregular cross section geometries. The obtained isovel contours in a flume section with nine cases of composite roughnesses are used for discharge estimations. Then, they are compared with measured ones. Model predictions are well correlated with the measured data. The isovel contours obtained by applications of the model to river sections are used to estimate the depth-average and surface velocities. Then they are compared with the measured data at the corresponding sections. The predicted results of water surface velocities are in good agreement with the measured data in a cross section of the River Unon in Japan. The result of the depth-average velocity shows, even better agreement with the measured data as well as the best analytical results for the River Severn in the UK.     

A dip-corrected discharge estimation method for a river system

This work proposes a novel dip corrected velocity distribution model in combination with the entropy theory for discharge estimation in a braided river. A modified form of the dip correction factor is derived by considering the topographical complexities and applied for assessing velocity profiles in river cross-sections. The velocity profiles at different verticals are computed by employing Shanon's entropy theory. The depth-averaged velocities at different cross-sections are estimated from the computed vertical velocity profiles and substituted in the area-velocity method for the discharge calculation. The model is applied to two study areas, Majuli and Umananda of the Brahmaputra River, having both simple and braided sections. The validation of the model is performed using the observed discharge data available at the nearby gauge site for low flow condition. Results indicate that the integration of bed rugosity factor in dip corrected velocity distributions improves the accuracy of discharge estimations.     

Experimental and computational studies on flow behavior around counter rotating blades in a double-spindle deck

Experimental and computational studies were performed to determine the effects of different blade designs on a flow pattern inside a double-spindle counter rotating mower deck. In the experimental study, two different blade models were tested by measuring air velocities using a forward-scatter LDV system. The velocity measurements were taken at several different azimuth and axial sections inside the deck. The measured velocity distributions clarified the air flow pattern caused by the rotating blades and demonstrated the effects of deck and blade designs. A high-speed video camera and a sound level meter were used for flow visualization and noise level measurement. In the computational works, two-dimensional blade shapes at several arbitrary radial sections have been selected for flow computations around the blade model. For three-dimensional computation applied a non-inertia coordinate system, a flow field around the entire three-dimensional blade shape is used to evaluate flow patterns in order to take radial flow interactions into account. The computational results were compared with the experimental results.     

Application of large scale PIV in river surface turbulence measurements and water depth estimation

Large-Scale Particle Image Velocimetry (LSPIV) has emerged as a reliable technology to measure river surface flow velocity distribution and can be applied to estimate river discharge. Fewer studies have explored the capability of surface turbulence measurements using LSPIV. In this paper, LSPIV is applied to evaluate statistics of surface turbulence of a natural river. Turbulence measurements including velocity fluctuation, velocity spectra and the dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) are validated by comparing with those measured by an Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV). Traditionally, estimation of stream discharge through LSPIV needs a secondary measurement to determine river bathymetry and water depth. A new method is presented here to demonstrate that for a fully developed and channel-controlled flow, the cross section geometry can be estimated from the combined measurements of surface mean velocity and the dissipation rate, following the Manning-Strickler formula. Therefore, river discharge can be estimated with LSPIV along with a calibrated Manning's roughness, without additional bathymetry survey. The proposed new method is applied to measure discharge in Milwaukee River (Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S.A.), which agreed well with data obtained from a nearby streamgage station.     

An improvement of the Space-Time Image Velocimetry combined with a new denoising method for estimating river discharge

The Space-Time Image Velocimetry (STIV) is a time-averaged velocity measurement method, which takes river surface images as the analysis object, and detects the Main Orientation of Texture (MOT) in a generated Space-Time Image (STI) to obtain one-dimensional velocities on the water surface. The STIV has great potential in real-time monitoring of river flow owing to its high spatial resolution and low time complexity. However, the generated STI contains a lot of noise and interference texture, which is inevitable in practical applications. The practicality of the STIV is severely limited by the low-quality STI. To solve this problem, a denoising method based on the filtering technology is proposed and combined with different texture detection algorithms in this paper. The accuracy of this method is verified through a comparative field experiment with an impellor-style current meter. The experimental results show: (1) By using this new denoising method, the robustness and accuracy of the STIV are significantly improved no matter what kind of texture detection algorithm is adopted; (2) Among all the texture detection algorithms, the FFT-based STIV combined with the new denoising method performs best. The relative errors of the surface velocities are controlled within 6%, and the relative errors of the discharges are controlled within ±4%.     

Low flow regime measurements with an automatic pulse tracer velocimeter (APTV) in heterogeneous aquatic environments

Cost-effective velocity measurements at lab and field scales are required for understanding and modeling the flow characteristics in aquatic environments such as constructed wetlands, coastal marshes, lakes and reservoirs. This paper presents a new measurement device—the automatic pulse tracer velocimeter (APTV) that is designed to measure water velocities for low flow regimes (0.2–5.0 cm s⁻¹) in heterogeneous aquatic environments using NaCl pulse tracer measurements. Hydraulic data collected in a laboratory-scale flume and field-scale constructed wetland were analyzed to determine velocity, directional flow and dispersion coefficients measured by using a cross-type and arc-type APTV. Acoustic Doppler velocimeters (ADVs) were used to collect calibration measurements in a hydraulic flume to gain fundamental understanding in support of field experiments. To test the effects of vegetation, four scenarios of laboratory-scale tests having both submerged and emergent artificial vegetation were conducted in a flume including; (1) no artificial vegetation (NAV), (2) submerged artificial vegetation (SAV) (3) emergent artificial vegetation (EAV), and (4) mix artificial vegetation (MAV). Directional flow detection and simulated storm event flow tests were conducted using an arc-type APTV data in the flume to gain perspectives of APTV performance in variable flow conditions. Cross-type APTV pulse data were eventually analyzed to determine dispersion coefficients based on the tracer curves. Finally APTVs were tested alongside an ADV for a three-day duration in a constructed wetland nearby the Everglades, Florida. Operating advantages of the APTV compared to other similar sensors were summarized in the end to enhance the application potential. Results indicate that APTVs are ideal device for affordable measurements of velocities in a 0.2–4.5 cm s⁻¹ range with the prediction of both velocity field, direction and dispersion coefficients, and capable of autonomous deployment and control in a sensor network.     

Measurements of three-dimensional velocities of spray droplets using the holographic velocimetry system

The Holographic Particle Velocimetry system can be a promising optical tool for the measurements of three dimensional particle velocities. In this study, the holographic particle velocimetry system was used to measure the sizes and velocities of droplets produced by a commercial full cone spray nozzle. As a preliminary validation experiment, the velocities of glass beads on a rotating disk were measured with uncertainty analysis to identify the sources of all relevant errors and to evaluate their magnitude. The error of the particle velocity measured by the holographic method was 0.75 m/s, which was 4.5% of the known velocity estimated by the rotating speed of disk. The spray droplet velocities ranged from 10.3 to 13.3 m/s with average uncertainty of +-1.6 m/s, which was +-14% of the mean droplet velocity. Compared with relatively small uncertainty of velocity components in the normal direction to the optical axis, uncertainty of the optical axis component was very high. This is due to the long depth of field of droplet images in the optical axis, which is inherent feature of holographic system using forward-scattering object wave of particles.     

A method for measuring the dynamics of velocity vector fields in a turbulent flow using smoke image-visualization videos

A new optical method for determining flow-velocity vector fields that allows investigations of unsteady and fast processes is described. The method is based on measuring the displacements of turbulent structures, which are visualized in a light sheet, within a fixed time interval between consecutive video frames. The method was tested using measurements of pulsating-flow velocity. It was shown that the difference between the mean flow velocity in the investigated flow measured using this method and a hot-wire anemometer does not exceed 1%, while the deviation of the rms velocity pulsations is within 4.5%.     

Experimental and numerical analysis of velocity distribution in a compound meandering channel with double layered rigid vegetated flood plains

Vegetation is one of the major topographic features that is encountered along and across the margins and flood plains of many rivers systems. This vegetation creates a most complex flow mechanism in the compound river bed channels; therefore, a detailed analysis is required to observe the flow and vegetation interactions to understand the hydrodynamic aspects in the river systems. This paper studies the effect of double-layered rigid vegetation in a meandering channel on the flow characteristics at two relative depth conditions, of 0.34, 0.45 which creates an alternate emergent and submerged flow situation. The three-dimensional velocity distribution was captured using micro-ADV. The concept of two relative depth conditions allowed us to capture record and classify the velocity zones between the short and tall vegetation. Compared to the flow in the main channel, flood plains registered relatively lower velocity values due to the resistance offered by the vegetation along the flood plains, which consequently led to the increase in main channel flow velocities. Velocities compared to the non-vegetated meandering channels; the highest velocity readings were recorded at the centerline of the main channel. Numerical analysis was also conducted using the CFD codes in fluent. The vegetation geometry is modelled as cylindrical dowels of diameter 10 mm and two-variable heights of 7.5 cm and 15 cm at two relative depth flow conditions. The experimental results were numerically compared using the k-ϵ model along with grid sensitivity tests. The final simulated numerical results were found to be close and in good agreement with experimental values.     

Measuring river velocity and discharge with acoustic Doppler profilers

Acoustic Doppler profilers and associated software packages presently are being used to measure water velocity, channel bathymetry, and river discharge. The instruments have various configurations and frequencies; choice of the appropriate instrument depends on various factors including depth, width, and sediment load of the rivers being measured. The acoustic Doppler profilers are mounted on powerboats or small remote-controlled or tethered rafts or catamarans. Profilers enable users to make fast, accurate, and economical discharge measurements on large rivers and rivers with unsteady flow conditions because of flooding or irregular releases from reservoirs. This article describes the principles of operation, application of acoustic Doppler profilers to the measurement of velocity and discharge, and calibration and verification issues.     

Image processing techniques for high-speed videometry in horizontal two-phase slug flows

Two-phase flow measurements are very common in industrial applications especially in oil and gas areas. Although some works in image segmentation have analyzed gas–liquid slug flow along vertical pipes, few approaches have focused on horizontal experiments. In such conditions, the detection of the Taylor bubble is challenging due the great amount of small bubbles in the slug area and, thus, requires a special treatment in order to separate gas from liquid phases. This article describes a new technique that automatically estimates bubble parameters (e.g. frequency, dimension and velocity) through video analysis of high-speed camera measurements in horizontal pipes. Experimental data were obtained from a flow test section where slug flows were generated under controlled conditions. Image processing techniques such as watershed segmentation, top-hat filtering and H-minima transform were applied to detect and estimate bubble contour and velocities from the observed images. Finally, the estimated parameters were compared to theoretical predictions, showing good agreement and indicating that the proposed technique is a powerful tool in the investigation of two-phase flow.     

Comparison of Particle Image Velocimetry and Laser Doppler Anemometry measurement methods applied to the oil–water flow in horizontal pipe

In this work, a comparison of Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA) measurement methods was made applied to oil–water two-phase flow in a horizontal pipe. The experiments were conducted in a 15 m long, 56 mm diameter stainless steel pipe using Exxsol D60 oil (density 790 kg/m³ and viscosity 1.64 mPa s) and water (density 996 kg/m³ and viscosity 1.0 mPa s) as test fluids. The experiments were performed at different mixture velocities and water cuts. Mixture velocity and water cut vary up to 1.06 m/s and 0.75, respectively. The instantaneous local velocities were measured using PIV and LDA, and based on the instantaneous local velocities mean velocities and turbulence profiles are estimated. The measurements are performed in the vertical plane through the pipe center. A double-pulsed Nd:yttrium aluminium garnet (YAG) laser and a high-speed camera with 1260×1024 px resolution (1.3 Mpx) were used for the PIV measurements. The LDA set-up is a two-colour backscatter system with 3 W Argon-Ion Laser. The time averaged cross-sectional distributions of oil and water phases were measured with a traversable gamma densitometer. The measured mean axial velocity and turbulence profiles using PIV were observed to compare favourably well with LDA measurements. Nevertheless, the PIV measurements are more sensitive for optical disturbances in the dispersed region close to the oil–water interface. Hence, this region cannot be confidently analyzed using PIV, whereas LDA offers full-field measurements even at higher mixture velocities.     

Determining the kinematic parameters of moving test objects via the results of video recording

Algorithms for processing results of high-speed video recording of the processes of interaction between test objects and barriers are presented. The algorithms make it possible to determine the position of the test object relative to a barrier, as well as the kinematic parameters (the velocity and acceleration) of the points of the test object before, during, and after interaction with the barrier at initial test object collision velocities of up to 120 m/s. The efficiency of the developed algorithms is confirmed by the good coincidence of the results of videogram processing with the results of acceleration measurements by piezoelectric accelerometers.