Numerical investigation of accuracy of conductance-typed wire-mesh sensor using CFD and electrostatic simulations

Uesawa, Shinichiro  ; Ono, Ayako ; Yamashita, Susumu   ; Yoshida, Hiroyuki  

A conductance-typed wire-mesh sensor (WMS), utilizing the difference in conductivity between gas and liquid phases between the electrodes, is one of the practical measurement techniques of a cross-sectional void fraction distribution in a flow path. In this study, we performed two-phase computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and electrostatic simulations around a WMS for a single spherical bubble and bubbly flow to clarify the systematic error in the WMS. The results for the single bubble indicated that there were systematic errors based on the non-uniform current density distribution around the WMS. The correlation between instantaneous void fractions and WMS signals is not uniquely determined for positions of the single bubble moving across the WMS, even for the same bubble. Moreover, the correlation between the instantaneous void fractions and the WMS signals did not fit in a linear approximation and Maxwell's equation, which traditionally used transformation methods from the WMS signal to the void fraction. The results for the bubbly flow indicated that the WMS had difficulty in quantitative measurements of the instantaneous void fraction because the values had a significant deviation of the void fraction of approximately 0.2. On the other hand, time-averaged void fraction values had relatively small deviation. Thus, we concluded that the WMS, using existing transformation methods, can measure time-averaged void fractions, but it is difficult to measure quantitatively instantaneous void fractions.