Application of the phase method in radioisotope measurements of the liquid - solid particles flow in the vertical pipeline

Abstract

The paper presents idea and an application of the gamma-absorption method to a two-phase flow investigation in a vertical pipeline, where the flow of solid particles transported by water was examined by a set of two 241Am radioactive sources and probes with NaI(Tl) scintillation crystals. In the described experiments as solid phase the ceramic models representing natural polymetallic ocean nodules were used. For advanced analysis of electrical signals obtained from detectors the phase of cross-spectral density function has been applied. Results of the average solid-phase velocity measurements were compared with one obtained by application of the classical cross-correlation. It was found that the combined uncertainties of the velocity of solid particles evaluation in the presented experiment did not exceed 0.6% in phase method and 3.2% in cross-correlation method.