Gas bubbles investigation in contaminated water using optical tomography based on independent component analysis method

Abstract

This paper presents the results of concentration profiles for gas bubble flow in a vertical pipeline containing contaminated water using an optical tomography system. The concentration profiles for the bubble flow quantities are investigated under five different flows conditions, a single bubble, double bubbles, 25% of air opening, 50% of air opening, and 100% of air opening flow rates where a valve is used to control the gas flow in the vertical pipeline. The system is aided by the independent component analysis (ICA) algorithm to reconstruct the concentration profiles of the liquid-gas flow. The behaviour of the gas bubbles was investigated in contaminated water in which the water sample was prepared by adding 25 mL of colour ingredients to 3 liters of pure water. The result shows that the application of ICA has enabled the system to detect the presence of gas bubbles in contaminated water. This information provides vital information on the flow inside the pipe and hence could be very significant in increasing the efficiency of the process industries.