COCURRENT DOWNFLOW IN PACKED-BEDS - FLOW REGIMES AND THEIR ACOUSTIC SIGNATURES

The sound produced by the flow of water and air through a model packed column changes with the bed-scale regime. This paper reports acoustic sensing of pressure fluctuations together with flow visualization in an almost “two-dimensional” packed column. In the power spectra of sound detected at the outlet were found useful signatures of certain regimes and transitions between them. The most distinctive signature was that of pulsing flow, namely, a single, high peak in the frequency range of the liquid-rich slugs and of the gas-rich slugs that alternate with them, as seen in visualizations of the same flows. © 1990, American Chemical Society. All rights reserved.