Determining the Thin Film Thickness of Two Phase Flow using Optics and Image Processing

Abstract

Gas- Liquid flows are by far the most important type of multiphase flow. This can be attributed to the wide range of industrial applications that the gas-liquid flow is discerned in. Popular examples of Gas-liquid flows are oil-gas mixtures, evaporators, boilers, condensers, refrigeration and cryogenics. The measurement of the liquid film thickness in two phase flows is prominent in various heat and mass transfer applications such as in boilers. To determine the thin film thickness is the aim of this study. A glass tube of diameter 4.7 mm is used for conducting the experiment and a laser pointer is used to obtain an image pattern on the screen. Using the principles of Optics, a method has been proposed to determine the thin film thickness and also to characterize the different types of flow. The thin film thickness obtained in the proposed method is validated using Image Processing.

Keywords

• Two phase flow; Thin film thickness; Optics; Image processing.