Fast wire-mesh sensors for gas-liquid flows and decomposition of gas fraction profiles according to bubble size classes

The wire-mesh sensor developed by the Forschungszentrum Rossendorf produces measuring sequences of instantaneous gas fraction distributions in a cross section at a rate of up to 10 000 frames per second and a spatial resolution of about 2-3 mm. This sensor was applied to an upwards air-liquid flow in a vertical channel. After a brief introduction of the functioning of the sensor, the paper presents results obtained at a rate of 1200 frames per second, which were used to study the evolution of bubble size distributions and radial gas fraction profiles along the pipe, starting at a relative distance of L/D=0.6 above the gas injection and ending at L/D=60. The developed bubble identification algorithm allows to select bubbles of a given range of the effective diameter and to calculate partial gas fraction profiles for this diameter range. In this way, the different behaviour of small and large bubbles in respect to the action of the lift force was observed in a mixture of small and large bubbles. Furthermore, the paper presents results of a flow visualisation at the rate of 10 000 frames per second, showing details of the flow structure in the region of transition to annular flow.