Study on a new four‐fiber sensor signal processing algorithm of hydrodynamic characteristics in liquid–liquid two‐phase flow

Abstract

In the process of two‐phase countercurrent flow in the extraction column, the study of the hydrodynamic characteristics of dispersed phase droplets is crucial for the design and scaling up of the extraction column. In a pulsed extraction column with a liquid–liquid system, the four‐sensor optical fiber probe was used to assess the hydrodynamic characteristics of the dispersed phase droplets, including size, mean velocity, and holdup. 1 M HNO3 and 30% TBP/kerosene were used as continuous phase and dispersed phase, respectively. The effects of two‐phase superficial velocities and pulsation intensity were investigated on droplet size, mean velocity, and holdup. The findings show that aside from the local holdup, the pulsation intensity has the greatest impact on the hydrodynamic characteristics. A new and concise algorithm was used to deal with the light signals to determine the droplet size and mean velocity. This algorithm created two Cartesian coordinate systems, each with a separate z‐axis using the leading probe as the origin of the coordinate instead of using the vector approach. Compared to the previous algorithm, both the needed number of the time interval between the voltage peaks and that of the direction angles decrease. The relative error of the droplet size obtained by this improved algorithm is within 7%, and droplet velocity is almost the same, compared to the previous algorithm, which indicates that the new algorithm of the four‐sensor optical fiber signal processing is reliable to the measurement of the hydrodynamic characteristics.