Advanced ultrasound techniques for studying liquid–liquid dispersions in confined impinging jets

Abstract

Advanced ultrasound techniques were used to study liquid–liquid dispersed flows formed in impinging jets confined in small channels. Ultrasound speed and attenuation coefficient spectra of the propagated sound waves were used to obtain volume fraction and drop size distributions, respectively. The results were compared against drop size distributions obtained with high-speed imaging. Experiments were conducted in a 2 mm internal diameter tube for both kerosene oil continuous and glycerol/water continuous dispersions. The overall mixture flow rate was set at 60 ml/s, and the dispersed phase fractions were 0.02, 0.05, and 0.10. The measured volume fractions were found to be very close to the input ones, indicating a very small slip between the phases in the dispersed flows. From the ultrasound measurements, the drop size distributions were found to range from 32 to 695 μm under the different conditions used. The drop sizes at the two low input volume fractions were in reasonable agreement with the results from the imaging. Imaging, however, could not be used for the 0.10 input dispersed phase fraction. These results demonstrate the applicability of the ultrasound techniques to measurements in dispersed liquid–liquid flows in small channels.