Particle size impact on Vectrino

Hi,

How will particle size impact the performance of the Vectrino, specifically for the following particle sizes:

10-50 micron

50-100 micron

100-200 micron

With concentrations up to 10% wt.

Best regards,

Judah

I'd suggest reading the following paper available in the Knowledge Center for a little background on acoustic scattering: http://www.nortek-as.com/lib/technical-notes/seditments

For the Vectrino, a 10 MHz instrument, the peak in the acoustic sensitivity (Figure 2 in the paper) is at 50 micron. So, the Vectrino is going to see the 50 micron particles better than anything else and velocity measurements will be biased towards those particle velocities. Backscatter from particles > 50 micron will generally be stronger than backscatter from particles < 50 micron.

The maximum concentration is going to be at the edge of the linear response region if a concentration measurement is going to be inferred from backscatter. Obviously, the instrument response will need to be check in this region. Otherwise, the high concentrations could attenuate the return signal causing low SNR.

For the larger particles, their ability to passively follow the flow (Stokes number) will need to be verified. If they aren't following the flow, the Vectrino will be measuring particle velocities and not flow velocities.

There's probably more Atle can add to this, but it's a start.

P.J.