Hybrid PIV/PTV measurements of velocity and position distributions of gas-conveyed particles in small, narrow channels

Abstract

Pneumatic conveying of particles is generally applied in large ducts. However, new applications are emerging which benefit from millimeter-sized ducts; for example, triboelectric separators where intensive wall-particle contact is desirable. An optical method is proposed to measure the distribution of the position and velocity of 100-1000 μm particles in such narrow ducts. Images of the system are captured using a digital camera on which a Hough transform is applied to detect the particles and their positions. The velocities are acquired by applying a hybrid particle tracking and particle image velocimetry approach. This made it is possible to overcome challenges caused by suboptimal lighting, nonsmooth background, and a large ratio between particle and duct diameter (>O(0.1)). It is shown that the algorithm is subpixel accurate when sufficient particles can be sampled. Finally, typical results are shown to illustrate the method's capabilities.