Gamma-ray CT for multi-phase flow investigation

Recently, gamma-ray computed tomography (GCT) has been established at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) for the investigation of two- or multiphase flows in technical apparatuses. The GCT systems at HZDR are operated with collimated 137Cs isotopic sources emitting gamma photons with an energy of 662 keV. This gamma radiation is able to penetrate dense housings and delivers sufficient phase contrast between, e.g., liquid and gas. The radiation detector arcs consist of in-house developed gamma-ray detector modules based on scintillation detector technology. Special effort has been spent on their thermal design. With a thermal stabilisation of better than 1 K for each detector element, a high repeat measuring accuracy could be achieved for varying environmental temperatures within a temperature range of 20 K. A current project is engaged in gas phase distribution determination within industrial centrifugal pumps at various operating states. Because the application of those pumps is limited to single liquid phase flow, gas entrainment reduces its delivery performance as well as the process efficiency. For detailed studies, a thermo hydraulic test facility was assembled at HZDR replicating authentic operating conditions for industrial centrifugal pumps. Defined gas volume fractions can be injectect in form of two different flow regimes, disperse and tubular. Thus, effects onto delivery perfomance and corresponding gas fraction distribution and gas holdup within the impeller region could be determined.