ABSTRACT
This paper presents an experimental investigation using acoustic emission (AE)
technology to monitor sand transportation in two-phase flow. The initial investigation
consisted of a preliminary experiment where a single sand particle was dropped from
a height onto metal plates to provide a basis for monitoring particle impingement on
metal pipes in two-phase or three-phase flow systems. Further investigations were
undertaken on two phase (air-sand) flow in a horizontal pipe for varying Superficial
Gas Velocities (VSG). The objective of this research programme is to develop a
simple, non-invasive technique for monitoring of sand particle concentration levels in
multi-phase flow conditions. The experimental findings show that AE absolute energy
can be correlated with the size of sand particles, number of sand particles and VSG.