Ultrasonic measurement of dispersed phase volumetric holdup in liquid/liquid dispersions
AssigneeSyracuse University
InventorsLawrence L. Tavlarides, Julio C. Bonnet
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The fractional volumetric holdup .phi. of a dispersed phase in a two liquid dispersed phase system is determined by measuring the travel time of ultrasonic pulses on a fixed path for the dispersed phase, and for the two liquids separately, and caluclated according to the relation .phi.=t*-t.sub.1 /t.sub.2 -t.sub.1 where t*, t.sub.1, and t.sub.2 are the ultrasonic pulse travel times through the dispersed phase, the first liquid, and the second liquid. The pulses can be transmitted from a transmitter transducer straight through the contents of a reactor to a receive transducer, or can be reflected off a die or similar flat faced member back to the originating transducer.
Claims14
A process of measuring a dispersed phase fractional volumetric holdup in a two-liquid dispersed phase system, comprising measuring the travel time for an ultrasonic pulse over a predetermined distance through each of the two liquid phases in substantially pure form and through the two-liquid dispersed phase system;
- and calculating the dispersed phase fractional volumetric holdup .phi. according to the relationship
- .phi.=t*-t.sub.1 /t.sub.1 -t.sub.2
- where t.sub.1 and t.sub.2 are the travel times of the ultrasonic pulses through the pure form liquid phases, and t* is the travel time of the ultrasonic pulses through the dispersed phase system.
In a reactor of the type in which first and second liquid phases are mixed to form a two liquid dispersed phase system with one of the liquid phases being held up as a liquid/liquid dispersion in the other liquid phase, including a reactor vessel having a vessel wall within which the two-liquid system is contained, means for introducing the first and second liquids into said vessel, and mixing means for mechanically agitating the liquids;
- the improvement comprising ultrasonic transducer means disposed in acoustic communication with the two-liquid dispersed phase system in said vessel for transmitting a train of ultrasonic pulses into said two-liquid dispersed phase system and for receiving said pulses after they have traveled through said two-liquid dispersed phase system over a predetermined path;
- means for electrically exciting said transducer means to generate said ultrasonic pulses;
- means for sensing the pulse reception at said transducer means;
- and means permitting measurement of the travel time t* of said ultrasonic pulses over said predetermined path such that a dispersed fractional holdup .phi. of the two-liquid dispersed phase system can be calculated according to the relationship
- .phi.=t*-t.sub.1 /t.sub.1 -t.sub.2
- where t.sub.1 and t.sub.2 are travel times of said ultrasonic pulses through the first and second phases in substantially pure form.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.