EVALUATING CONCENTRATION PROFILES DURING UNSTEADY MIXING

Pulse jet mixing tests to suspend noncohesive solids in Newtonian liquid were conducted at three geometric scales. To understand the solids suspension process an ultrasonic concentration probe was used to measure the concentration of solids in the cloud during a pulse at various elevations and radial positions. The data are being analyzed to provide a model for predicting concentration as a function of elevation. This paper presents a simple single frequency ultrasonic measurement application that demonstrates the ability of ultrasonic sensors to measure slurry concentration based on signal attenuation. Sensor calibration data show that ultrasonic signal attenuation is proportional to the applied frequency and to the slurry volume fraction. Real-time measurements of ultrasonic signal attenuation were used to track the process of slurry mixing using single sensors and sensor arrays. Comparison of means of the ultrasonic measurements with means obtained from discrete extractive measurements show that the distributions overlap and cannot be statistically distinguished. The real-time ultrasonic sensor can be used as a primary measurement method or to reduce reliance upon extractive methods to measure slurry density.