Radiotracer and particle tracking methods, modeling and scale‐up

Abstract

Radiotracer techniques are widely used for troubleshooting and detection of pathological flows in industrial reactors. In recent decades, there has been a trend towards using radiotracer techniques for assessing flow field in industrial vessels, likening them to residence time distribution (RTD) measurements. On the other hand, radiation‐based particle tracking techniques such as Radioactive Particle Tracking (RPT) methods have become popular for laboratory investigations flow fields in multiphase reactors. Both the methods have been used to validate respective‐scale phenomenological and CFD models to some success, but in a rather independent and ad hoc fashion and not attempting to link the two techniques as flow interrogators in their respective domains. This communication tries to bridge these two techniques and proposes a way to link the two, and makes a case for using them as complementary techniques for measurements at the two scales, and for validating models at the two scales. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 63: 314–326, 2017

Comparison of the Fluidized State Stability From Radioactive Particle Tracking Results Applied

“…On the other hand, in the last decades, experimental methods have been developed to determine trajectories of particles in free movement within multiphase equipment. The Radioactive Particle Tracking (RPT) technique involves determining the trajectory of a single radioactive tracer representing the solid particles of the system, providing comprehensive information on multiphase flows [11][12][13][14][15] Shannon (or information) entropy is a statistic that estimates the homogeneity of a probability distribution which can be used as a mixing index [16,17]. The Shannon entropy is a property of any probability distribution, {p i }, i ∈ (1; … ; N) where N is the number of bins into which the valid range of the distribution is divided.…”

Machine learning based position‐rendering algorithms for radioactive particle tracking experimentation

“…RPT is based on the idea of tracking the motion of single, γ ‐ray‐emitting radioactive tracer particle, acting as the marker of the phase being tracked . Typically, RPT is implemented in two phases: calibration run and experimental run.…”

Study of gas solid turbulent flow in a thermal reactor: Experimental and numerical comparison

“…However, recent studies on the theory of residence time and their applications in the field are as diverse as chemistry and process engineering. On the other hand, several authors such as Roy et al and Sharma et al used radiotracers to estimate RTDs. The competence of these techniques in probing multiphase flow systems is well‐documented in the literature .…”

“…On the other hand, several authors such as Roy et al and Sharma et al used radiotracers to estimate RTDs. The competence of these techniques in probing multiphase flow systems is well‐documented in the literature . Radiotracer techniques can be used even when there is a high volume fraction of the dispersed phase, since the highly penetrating gamma radiation allows “optical access” into a flow field that is otherwise laid opaque by scattering of other larger wavelength radiations, including those in the visible range…”

“…The competence of these techniques in probing multiphase flow systems is well-documented in the literature. [10][11] Radiotracer techniques can be used even when there is a high volume fraction of the dispersed phase, since the highly penetrating gamma radiation allows "optical access" into a flow field that is otherwise laid opaque by scattering of other larger wavelength radiations, including those in the visible range. [12] The study of RTD affects several areas and different networks from the scale distribution of drinking water to the microcapillary.…”