A novel ECT–EST combined method for gas–solids flow pattern and charge distribution visualization

A non-invasive measurement method of visualizing the flow pattern and charge distribution of gas–solids two-phase flow has been studied and verified using gravity-dropping and pneumatic conveyance rigs with pulverized coal as solids. It has been proven that the permittivity distribution acquired from an electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) system can be used to improve the accuracy in establishing charge sensitivity field of an electrostatic tomography (EST) system, and to reduce the uncertainty of charge distribution reconstruction. The experimental results show that, under the given experimental conditions for the gravity-dropping system, charge density increases with particles' concentration, whilst in the pneumatic conveyance system, charge density decreases in the area where the particles' concentration is higher, and the total charge intensity decreases with the increase of the concentration of pulverized coal in the pipe. The method proposed in this paper is potentially important in pneumatic processes for charge distribution measurement and safe operations. It is envisaged that with further development, this technique can provide information for investigation into the mechanism of inter-particle force on electrostatic attraction and repulsion. (paper)