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On-Line Measurement of Particle Size and Shape Distributions of Pneumatically Conveyed Particles through Multi-Wavelength Based Digital Imaging

Gao, Lingjun, Yan, Yong, Lu, Gang, Carter, Robert M. (2012) On-Line Measurement of Particle Size and Shape Distributions of Pneumatically Conveyed Particles through Multi-Wavelength Based Digital Imaging. Flow Measurement and Instrumentation, 27 . pp. 20-28. ISSN 0955-5986. (doi:10.1016/j.flowmeasinst.2012.03.011) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:30191)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.flowmeasinst.2012.03.0...

Abstract

On-line continuous monitoring of pneumatically conveyed particulate material is desirable in many industrial processes such as power generation, steel making, chemical processing and food handling. Co-firing of biomass with coal at an existing coal-fired power plant has been widely adopted as one of the main technologies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Particle size and shape distributions of pulverised coal and biomass during pneumatic transportation are important parameters in relation to combustion efficiency and pollutant emissions and should therefore be monitored on-line continuously. In this paper, a novel instrumentation system incorporating a colour CCD camera and multi-wavelength laser sources is proposed to achieve on-line continuous measurement of particle size and shape

distributions. Unlike the single-laser technique, three solid-state lasers of RGB (Red, Green and Blue)wavelengths are used to illuminate the particle flow field simultaneously whilst the camera captures the images of particles. The advantage of this approach is the simultaneous imaging of three different crosssections of the pipe without the use of moving or scanning components. Quantitative information of the particles is obtained by decomposing the red, green and blue channels from the primary colour images. The equivalent field of view is estimated to be more than three times greater than that of the singlelaser system. The size distribution of particles is determined by processing the particle images through contour-based image processing algorithms whilst the particle shape distribution is obtained by fitting the particles to the closest ellipses and determining their aspect ratios. Experimental results show that the multi-wavelength imaging system is capable of producing statistically more representative and more reliable measurement of particle size and shape distributions than the single-laser technique.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1016/j.flowmeasinst.2012.03.011
Uncontrolled keywords: Pulverised fuel, Particle size, Particle shape, Multi-wavelength lasers, RGB camera, Image processing
Subjects: T Technology > TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General) > TA1637 Image processing
Divisions: Divisions > Division of Computing, Engineering and Mathematical Sciences > School of Engineering and Digital Arts
Depositing User: J. Harries
Date Deposited: 17 Aug 2012 14:21 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:08 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/30191 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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