A New Capacitance Sensor for Measuring the Void Fraction of Two-Phase Flow Through Tube Bundles
Evaluating the two-phase flow parameters across tube bundles is crucial to the analysis of vibration excitation mechanisms. These parameters include the temporal and local variation of void fraction and phase redistribution. Understanding these two-phase parameters is essential to evaluating the sta...
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doaj-c8263182bf654cbf8eb27eae5379f3562020-11-25T03:25:29ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202020-04-01202088208810.3390/s20072088A New Capacitance Sensor for Measuring the Void Fraction of Two-Phase Flow Through Tube BundlesWael Ahmed0Adib Fatayerji1Ahmed Elsaftawy2Marwan Hassan3David Weaver4Jovica Riznic5School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G2W1, CanadaSchool of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G2W1, CanadaSchool of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G2W1, CanadaSchool of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G2W1, CanadaFaculty of Engineering, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8S4L7, CanadaCanadian Nuclear Safety Commission, Ottawa, ON K1P5S9, CanadaEvaluating the two-phase flow parameters across tube bundles is crucial to the analysis of vibration excitation mechanisms. These parameters include the temporal and local variation of void fraction and phase redistribution. Understanding these two-phase parameters is essential to evaluating the stability threshold of tube bundle configurations. In this work, capacitance sensor probes were designed using finite element analysis to ensure high sensor sensitivity and optimum response. A simulation-based approach was used to calibrate and increase the accuracy of the void fraction measurement. The simulation results were used to scale the normalized capacitance and minimize the sensor uncertainty to ±5%. The sensor and required conditioning circuits were fabricated and tested for measuring the instantaneous void fraction in a horizontal triangular tube bundle array under both static and dynamic two-phase flow conditions. The static calibration of the sensor was able to reduce the uncertainty to ±3% while the sensor conditioning circuit was able to capture instantaneous void fraction signals with frequencies up to 2.5 kHz.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/20/7/2088two-phase flowvoid fraction measurementcapacitance sensorvoid fractionflow patternstube bundle |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Wael Ahmed Adib Fatayerji Ahmed Elsaftawy Marwan Hassan David Weaver Jovica Riznic |
spellingShingle |
Wael Ahmed Adib Fatayerji Ahmed Elsaftawy Marwan Hassan David Weaver Jovica Riznic A New Capacitance Sensor for Measuring the Void Fraction of Two-Phase Flow Through Tube Bundles Sensors two-phase flow void fraction measurement capacitance sensor void fraction flow patterns tube bundle |
author_facet |
Wael Ahmed Adib Fatayerji Ahmed Elsaftawy Marwan Hassan David Weaver Jovica Riznic |
author_sort |
Wael Ahmed |
title |
A New Capacitance Sensor for Measuring the Void Fraction of Two-Phase Flow Through Tube Bundles |
title_short |
A New Capacitance Sensor for Measuring the Void Fraction of Two-Phase Flow Through Tube Bundles |
title_full |
A New Capacitance Sensor for Measuring the Void Fraction of Two-Phase Flow Through Tube Bundles |
title_fullStr |
A New Capacitance Sensor for Measuring the Void Fraction of Two-Phase Flow Through Tube Bundles |
title_full_unstemmed |
A New Capacitance Sensor for Measuring the Void Fraction of Two-Phase Flow Through Tube Bundles |
title_sort |
new capacitance sensor for measuring the void fraction of two-phase flow through tube bundles |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Sensors |
issn |
1424-8220 |
publishDate |
2020-04-01 |
description |
Evaluating the two-phase flow parameters across tube bundles is crucial to the analysis of vibration excitation mechanisms. These parameters include the temporal and local variation of void fraction and phase redistribution. Understanding these two-phase parameters is essential to evaluating the stability threshold of tube bundle configurations. In this work, capacitance sensor probes were designed using finite element analysis to ensure high sensor sensitivity and optimum response. A simulation-based approach was used to calibrate and increase the accuracy of the void fraction measurement. The simulation results were used to scale the normalized capacitance and minimize the sensor uncertainty to ±5%. The sensor and required conditioning circuits were fabricated and tested for measuring the instantaneous void fraction in a horizontal triangular tube bundle array under both static and dynamic two-phase flow conditions. The static calibration of the sensor was able to reduce the uncertainty to ±3% while the sensor conditioning circuit was able to capture instantaneous void fraction signals with frequencies up to 2.5 kHz. |
topic |
two-phase flow void fraction measurement capacitance sensor void fraction flow patterns tube bundle |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/20/7/2088 |
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