Two-phase flow in ribbed or corrugated pipes is of interest in many industrial applications. Experiments are performed to assess the flow regime characteristics in upward annular flow through vertical smooth and corrugated pipes. From high speed recordings, the flow regime and temporal film characteristics are obtained. A novel implementation of a planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) method is used to measure the film thickness, preventing strong reflections from deteriorating the measurements. Liquid accumulation between the ribs of the corrugated pipe is also measured using a PLIF technique. Furthermore, droplet sizing is performed combining shadowgraphic and interferometric techniques to capture a large droplet size range. The measurements show that the presence of pronounced corrugations at the pipe wall causes a strong increase in entrainment of liquid into the gas flow. The entrainment is correlated to the filling of the corrugations with liquid; it is significantly reduced (from 90% entrainment to 50%) when the corrugations are entirely filled with liquid. The amount of liquid filling of the corrugations is related to the superficial liquid film flow velocity. The liquid filling fraction (α) scales with the Weber and liquid Reynolds number, and the obtained scaling also holds when the experiments are repeated with a different liquid (mono-ethylene glycol) and with a larger corrugation geometry. Droplets occurring in corrugated pipe flow are 30-50% larger compared to the smooth pipe, as a consequence of the locally (at the locations of the cavities) increased film thickness.

A method has been developed for online liquid analysis of the amine and absorbed CO2 concentrations in a postcombustion capture process using monoethanolamine (MEA) as a solvent. Online monitoring of the dynamic behavior of these parameters is important in process control and is currently achieved only using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The developed method is based on cheap and easy measurable quantities. Inverse least-squares models were built at two temperature levels, based on a set of 29 calibration samples with different MEA and CO2 concentrations. Density, conductivity, refractive index, and sonic speed measurements were used as input data. The developed model has been validated during continuous operation of a CO2 capture pilot miniplant. Concentrations of MEA and CO2 in the liquid phase were predicted with an accuracy of 0.53 and 0.31 wt %, with MEA and CO2 concentrations ranging from 19.5 to 27.7 wt % and from 1.51 to 5.74 wt %, respectively. Process dynamics, like step changes in the CO2 flue gas concentration, were covered accurately, as well. The model showed good robustness to changes in temperature. Combining density, conductivity, refractive index, and sonic speed measurements with a multivariate chemometric method allows the real-time and accurate monitoring of the acid gas and MEA concentrations in CO2 absorption processes.

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(FIVs) can occur, caused by an interaction between an acoustic pipe resonance and the unsteady shear layers spanning the corrugations. Under certain conditions, these FIVs result in the production of high-amplitude tonal noise (also known as whistling). This is not only inconvenient, but can lead to damage of equipment, failure of piping systems, and hazardous situations. This study focuses on whistling attenuation by liquid addition to vertical corrugated pipe flow, and the identification of the mechanisms behind this attenuation. For this purpose, a new approach is developed to identify the liquid accumulation within the cavities based on planar laser-induced-fluorescence (PLIF) measurements. These measurements are combined with acoustic measurements to identify the sound production from the corrugated pipes. Burstyn (1922) and Cermak (1922) were the first of many to study the sound production from single-phase corrugated pipe flow. Since then, many studies have been devoted to the phenomenon behind the whistling behavior, which are summarized in a review paper on corrugated pipe flow by Rajavel and Prasad (2013).Whistling in corrugated pipes originates from a fluidacoustic feedback. The free shear layers spanning the cavities in this kind of flows are intrinsically unstable and can act as a source of sound. Under certain conditions, discrete vortices can be shed in the cavity mouth. Vortex shedding in the shear layers exerts an unsteady force on the walls, causing a reaction force, which is associated with the sound generation (Curle 1955). This sound source is of a dipole nature due to the vortex-wall interactions (Howe 2003), and feeds an axial acoustic mode in the pipe when the shedding frequency is below the cut-off frequency of the pipe. The acoustic perturbation caused by this acoustic resonance is a source of instability in the shear layers over the corrugations, triggering vortex shedding and closing the feedback loop.Abstract When a corrugated pipe is subject to a dry gas flow, high amplitude sound can be produced (so-called 'whistling'). It was shown previously that liquid addition to corrugated pipe flow has the ability to reduce sound production. Small amounts of liquid are sufficient to mitigate whistling entirely. One of the mitigation mechanisms, cavity filling, is studied experimentally. Acoustic measurements are combined with a planar laser-induced fluorescence technique to measure the liquid accumulation in the cavities of a corrugated pipe. Using this technique, it is shown that the amount of filling of the cavities with liquid increases with increasing liquid injection rate and with reducing gas flow rate. The reduction in whistling amplitude caused by the liquid injection is closely related to the cavity filling. This indicates that the geometric alteration of the pipe wall, caused by the accumulation of liquid inside the cavities, is an important factor in the reduction in whistling amplitude.