Powder flow instrumentation and measurements

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Ighodaro, D.A., 1994. Powder flow instrumentation and measurements. MPhil, Nottingham Trent University.

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Abstract

The objective of the current project was to develop instrumentation for powder flow measurements. This involved reviewing previous research work and identifying areas of further developments.

A review of current theories, explaining the fundamentals of powder flow measurement techniques, was carried out in order to furnish the background knowledge for the current research studies.

The instrumentation is comprised of; a commercial powder flow pneumatic system (for circulating the powder flow in pipes); sensor and signal conditioner units; transputer network (for processing sensor signals); and IBM host transputer development system (for Occam software developments and simulations).

Substantial system developments were carried out during the research work:

The transputer network communications were improved to enable a reliable continuous communications on the links. A low cost, simple and reliable digital interface was designed to link the transputer network to the analogue signal conditioner and sensor units for the purpose of; selecting analogue signal channels, setting channel gains, triggering and controlling the charging of the powder flow. The interface has also provisions for some future powder flow control functions.

Noise problems in the system were reduced by improving the design of the analogue and digital parts of the instrumentation. The sensor head has been developed to neutralise tribo charge noise, resulting from friction during the powder flow.

Implementing parallel processing algorithms on the transputer powder flow instrumentation offers unique advantages over the conventional microprocessor system. The transputer's ability in implementing concurrent processes has been found suitable for processing the sensor signals. The transputer could be programmed in most standard languages but Occam was used during this work. Occam is efficient in exploiting the special properties of the transputer. Occam software modules successfully developed on an IBM transputer host development system were later ported to run the transputer network.

Furthermore, useful areas of further work have been described.