measuring particles in water 1

[Willengos]

I am feeding an open space (through a pipe) with a water flow containing gel particles (sizes varying from 3 to 50 mm). I need to measure the mass of gel that I am feeding the tank in an hour. Any idea of how can I achieve this?

 

[hacksaw]

corolis meters provide flow and density if you have the $ to spend

 

[quark]

You can check this by 0.4 micron filters(absolute filers) if it's a homogenous mixture. You have to check the weight of filter paper before and after filtration (you should dry the paper after filtration before weighing it). Change in your tank volume can tell you the flowrate.

This is the method generally used to measure total suspended solids.

 

[Willengos]

Thank you hacksaw and quark for your answers. The flow is not an homogeneous mixture and i don't know the concentration therefore the change in the tank volume would tell me the flow rate but not the mass of gel. I am now looking at the coriolis meters but any other ideas would be great. Thanks again.

 

[phex]

is this a one-time measurement or a continuous service? if it is the latter, i would look into optical systems.

also the accuracy needed would be a factor. if it is sufficient to know a ball park number, you could go for counting the number of gel particles and calculating mass by multiplying with the mean particle size (weight). but this would be very ball-park-ish, so it is probably not really suited for your application.

another possibility coming to my mind (also not very precise) would be to weigh the tank content alltogether, measure the volume then get the difference between the actual weight of the content as opposed to the pure water content. the difference would enable you to iterate the actual total weight of the gel if you know its density as well as that of the water. complicated calculations but very easy measurement.

both of these ideas are just spontaneous ideas. don't take it too seriously, but i think either will work, is accuracy is not the highest concern.

just my two cents,
chris

 

[Willengos]

Phex, thank you for your input too. I have worked with optical systems in the past for velocity measurements but I cannot figure out how they would work in this case to identify the mass of gel bearing in mind that the particles are of different size and the concentration is unknown and variable.
The accuracy is quite important since we are feeding for an hour two days a week, so to answer your question no it is not a one time measurement.
Finally, i need to get these measurements at the pipe since the volume I am feeding is not measurable and it is variable too.

Thanks

 

[25362]

Have a look at

http://www.electroline.com.au/elc/feature_article/item_012003b.asp

to get some ideas

 

[Willengos]

Hello everybody,

I have spent sometime looking at the coriolis flowmeters and although at first I thought that would be it now I have another problem. The gel particles in the flow have nearly the same density than the water, therefore if coriolis meter is going to provide total mass flow rate, how could i figure out the mass of gel?

Thanks

Will