Flowmeter with restricted orifice - is for particle suspension assessment using photocell sensor in orthogonal directions

摘要

The flowmeter (16) has the fluid suspension introduced into a cylindrical tube (26), which also contains a number of smaller tubes (32) to produce a substantially laminar flow regime. The suspension itself, typically containing flocullar matter (12), is introduced through a small tube (14) coaxial with the main tube. The flowmeter chamber is formed by four boundaries, two of which are flat and two of which are exponential curves (18) converging towards the centre orifice (20). The latter is optically examined by an apparatus including a light source (22), a focussing unit (33) and a photocell (24), which enables fractional light intensities to be measured in both (Y) and (Z) co-ordinate directions, these being orthogonal to the direction of fluid flow (X).