Abstract
•Application of nuclear based techniques to measurement of two-phase flow was evaluated.•The proposed techniques were tested by performing a series of measurements.•Preliminary experimental results demonstrated that the Fast transmission technique show more sensitivity in detecting void fraction in surface pipes.•Results clearly show the effectiveness, reliability, quick and can be portable of the proposed techniques for measuring the void fraction.•Method based on incident fast neutrons beams is more advantageous than that relying on gamma ray and thermal neutron beams.
In this study, the application of nuclear transmission based techniques to the measurement of two-phase flow was evaluated and the experiment setup was described. Because neutrons are appreciably affected by interaction with hydrogen atoms, techniques based on transmission of thermal and fast neutron are particularly suitable for use with water or any other hydrogenous fluids. Based on the effective of water for gamma-rays attenuation on mass basis, transmission technique based on measuring of total gamma-rays has been examined. The beams of fast neutrons, thermal neutrons and gamma-rays emitted from 252Cf neutron source of strength 1.3 × 107 n/s were used. Void fraction is measured for steady-flow regimes in a horizontal air–water flow. Results are evaluated and the strength and limitations for each technique are given and discussed.