Magnetic resonance method and system for characterizing circular Couette flow of fluids
AssigneeUniversity of New Brunswick
InventorsWilliam Selby, Igor Mastikhin
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method and system of characterizing flow behavior of a fluid sample including providing a magnet with a constant gradient where at least a portion of the sample defining a sensitive region is in the constant gradient, inducing circular Couette flow in the fluid in at least the sensitive region, generating an NMR pulse sequence comprising at least two pulses with a delay between the pulses, acquiring at least one echo from the pulse sequence from the sensitive region, measuring the magnitude of the NMR signal of the at least one acquired echo, normalizing the measured magnitude to a reference magnitude, and using the normalized magnitude to derive a shear rate for the fluid sample.
Claims20
A method of characterizing flow behavior of a fluid sample comprising:
- i) providing a magnet with a static magnetic field and a constant gradient where at least a portion of the sample defining a sensitive region is in the constant gradient;
- ii) inducing circular Couette flow in the fluid in at least the sensitive region and providing a rotation speed of the sample;
- iii) generating an NMR pulse sequence comprising at least two pulses with a delay between the pulses;
- iv) acquiring at least one echo from the pulse sequence from the sensitive region
- v) measuring the magnitude of the NMR signal of the at least one acquired echo;
- vi) normalizing the measured magnitude to a reference magnitude;
- and
- vii) determining a flow behavior index for the fluid sample though fitting the measured magnitudes using a numerical integration equation.
An NMR system comprising:
- a portable unilateral magnetic having a constant gradient perpendicular to a surface of the magnet;
- a tubular stator vessel suitable for holding a sample fluid, wherein the stator is adjacent the surface and at least partially located in the constant gradient;
- a tubular rotor located inside of the stator vessel along the central longitudinal axis of the stator vessel;
- a motor operably connected to the tubular rotor for rotating the rotor around the central axis;
- a radio frequency coil around the tubular stator;
- and
- an NMR console operably connected to the radio frequency coil.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.