Two-phase flow characterization by nuclear magnetic resonance

MR relaxometry of micro-bubbles in the vertical bubbly flow at a low magnetic field (0.2T)

Measurements of the vertical bubbly flow were performed at a low magnetic field of 0.2T. The void fraction data were acquired. The susceptibility-induced changes in T₂ relaxation time were analyzed using the previously introduced approaches by Sukstanskii et al. and Ziener et al., originally developed for the Magnetic Resonance analysis of randomly distributed and isolated spherical inclusions, and a simple model of a spherical particle, respectively. The CPMG signal decay due to the presence of spherical inclusions was approximated as linear vs. CPMG inter-echo times to extract the average inclusion's size information. Two equations were derived for a simplified analysis of gas-liquid systems with basic T₂ measurements, and without prior knowledge on the gas-liquid susceptibility or a need for the magnetic gradient setup. They can provide estimates for the void fraction and the average inclusion size, provided the CPMG inter-echo time requirements are met. For the control samples, there was a good agreement with the theory. For the bubbly flows, a good agreement was observed between the Magnetic Resonance and optics-based estimates for the slowest airflow rate. The deviation, however, increased for higher airflow rates. The introduced approach lends itself to the characterization of multi-phase systems such as cavitating media and well-separated bubbly flows.

Magnetic susceptibility based magnetic resonance estimation of micro-bubble size for the vertically upward bubbly flow

The approach originally developed for the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance analysis of stable micro-bubbles is applied to studies of vertical bubbly flows. A very fast dispersion (diffusion) of water in bubbly flows extends the fast diffusion limit down to short (2-10 ms) measurement times, permitting the use of the simplified analytical expression to extract the micro-bubble size information both in bulk and spatially resolved. The observed strong bubble-induced reduction in T(2)(*) necessitates the use of very short encoding times and pure phase encoding methods to accurately measure the void fraction. There was an expected underestimation of bubble sizes at faster flow rates due to the limitations of the theory derived for small bubble sizes and non-interacting spherical bubbles (low void fractions and slow flow rates). This approach lends itself to studies of bubbly flows and cavitating media characterized by small bubble sizes and low void fractions.

SPRITE MRI of bubbly flow in a horizontal pipe

Bubble flow is characterised by numerous phase interfaces and turbulence, leading to fast magnetic resonance signal decay and artefacts in spin-warp imaging. In this paper, the SPRITE MRI pulse sequence, with its potential for very short encoding times, is demonstrated as an ideal technique for studying such dynamic systems. It has been used to acquire liquid velocity and relative intensity maps of two-phase gas-liquid dispersed bubble flow in a horizontal pipe at a liquid Reynolds number of 14,500. The fluids were air and water and a turbulence grid was used to generate a dispersed bubble flow pattern. The SPRITE technique shows promise for future research in gas-liquid flow.