Comparison between wire mesh sensor and gamma densitometry void measurements in two-phase flows

Wire mesh sensors (WMS) are fast imaging instruments that are used for gas–liquid and liquid–liquid two-phase flow measurements and experimental investigations. Experimental tests were conducted at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf to test both the capacitance and conductance WMS against a gamma densitometer (GD). A small gas–liquid test facility was utilized. This consisted of a vertical round pipe approximately 1 m in length, and 50 mm internal diameter. A 16 × 16 WMS was used with high spatial and temporal resolutions. Air–deionized water was the two-phase mixture. The gas superficial velocity was varied between 0.05 m s−1 and 1.4 m s−1 at two liquid velocities of 0.2 and 0.7 m s−1. The GD consisted of a collimated source and a collimated detector. The GD was placed on a moving platform close to the plane of wires of the sensor, in order to align it accurately using a counter mechanism, with each of the wires of the WMS, and the platform could scan the full section of the pipe. The WMS was operated as a conductivity WMS for a half-plane with eight wires and as a capacitance WMS for the other half. For the cross-sectional void (time and space averaged), along each wire, there was good agreement between WMS and the GD chordal void fraction near the centre of the pipe.