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Advances in the Measurement and Application of Particle Tracking

A special issue of Applied Sciences (ISSN 2076-3417). This special issue belongs to the section "Applied Physics General".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 September 2023) | Viewed by 5871

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Physics, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
Interests: applied nuclear physics; radiation metrology; tertiary physics education

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Guest Editor
Department of Physics, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
Interests: positron emission particle tracking (PEPT); granular and multiphase flow characterization; nuclear electronics and instrumentation; radiation measurement; applications of isotopes
School of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing 163318, China
Interests: PIV; PTV; multiphase; flow rate; holdup; oil-gas-water three-phase flow

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue is dedicated to the scientific development and application of particle tracking technologies that are predominantly utilized in the study of dynamic systems, such as granular, multiphase, and turbulent flows. A class of diverse and often complementary techniques exist to interrogate these systems, often based on hard field measurements (positron emission particle tracking and derivatives, radioactive particle tracking, X- and gamma-ray, neutron transmission imaging and/or tomography, etc.), optical techniques (particle image velocimetry, particle tracking velocimetry, etc.), and traditional tracer tracking methodologies.

Applications of particle tracking are as widespread as the flow phenomena themselves, ranging from fundamental scientific interest; civil and mechanical engineering; industrially relevant flows in minerals processing, pharmaceuticals, and food processing; and towards biomedical applications. The broader scientific use of these techniques extends to the validation and benchmarking of computational flow models including discrete element method and computational fluid dynamics calculations.

Contributions in the following key themes are invited:

  • Advances in particle tracking measurement;
  • Novel particle tracking methodologies;
  • Multi-modal or complimentary particle tracking and flow measurements;
  • Benchmarking and validation of particle tracking techniques and models;
  • Particle tracking in numerical simulation;
  • Applications of particle tracking measurement and simulation.

Combined measurement and/or computational approaches are welcomed. Focus will be placed on articles describing novel problems or applications where particle tracking offers a potential step change in fundamental understanding, advances in particle tracking techniques that are disruptive with demonstrable impact in the field, and those which are future-facing towards the next state of the art.  

Prof. Dr. Andy Buffler
Dr. Tom Leadbeater
Dr. Lianfu Han
Guest Editors

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

25 pages, 7695 KiB  
Article
On the Ability of Positron Emission Particle Tracking (PEPT) to Track Turbulent Flow Paths with Monte Carlo Simulations in GATE
by Rayhaan Perin, Katie Cole, Michael R. van Heerden, Andy Buffler, Yi-Yu Lin, Jiahao Zhang, Pablo R. Brito-Parada, Jonathan Shock and Stephen W. Peterson
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(11), 6690; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13116690 - 31 May 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1722
Abstract
Positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) has offered important insights into the internal dynamics of multiphase flows. High precision and frequency measurements of the location of the tracer particle are required to resolve individual eddies at the millimetre scale or smaller. To explore the [...] Read more.
Positron emission particle tracking (PEPT) has offered important insights into the internal dynamics of multiphase flows. High precision and frequency measurements of the location of the tracer particle are required to resolve individual eddies at the millimetre scale or smaller. To explore the potential of PEPT to perform these measurements, a model was developed of the Siemens ECAT “EXACT3D” HR++ positron emission tomography (PET) scanner at the PEPT Cape Town facility in South Africa with the software Geant4 Application for Tomographic Emission (GATE) and was used to generate Lagrangian tracks from simulations of moving tracer particles. The model was validated with measurements from both experiment and simulation and was extended to two virtual scenarios inspired by turbulent flows. The location data from the simulation accurately captured linear portions of an oscillating path up to high speeds of 25 m s1; however, tracking tended to undercut the turning points due to the high tracer acceleration. For a particle moving on a spiral path of decreasing radius, the location data tracked the path above a radius of 2.0 mm with an uncertainty equivalent to the radius of the tracer particle, 300 μm. Improvements to the measurement are required to track sub-millimetre flow structures, such as the application of PET scanners with higher spatial resolution and upgrades to the sampling processes used in location algorithms. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in the Measurement and Application of Particle Tracking)
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24 pages, 2653 KiB  
Article
X-ray Particle Tracking Velocimetry in an Overflowing Foam
by Tobias Lappan, Dominic Herting, Muhammad Ziauddin, Julian Stenzel, Natalia Shevchenko, Sven Eckert, Kerstin Eckert and Sascha Heitkam
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(3), 1765; https://doi.org/10.3390/app13031765 - 30 Jan 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1957
Abstract
In mineral processing, froth flotation is based on recovering valuable mineral particles by means of the overflowing froth. Industrial-scale froth flotation cells are typically equipped with optical measurement systems, which monitor the bubble sizes and flow velocities at the froth surface. However, the [...] Read more.
In mineral processing, froth flotation is based on recovering valuable mineral particles by means of the overflowing froth. Industrial-scale froth flotation cells are typically equipped with optical measurement systems, which monitor the bubble sizes and flow velocities at the froth surface. However, the velocity profile of the overflowing froth underneath its free surface is not accessible by optical observation. The present study combines X-ray radiography and particle tracking velocimetry in a laboratory-scale experiment aiming to measure local flow velocities within an optically opaque foam at a weir, which here describes a one-sided horizontal overflow. For this purpose, we prepared custom-tailored tracer particles: small 3D-printed polymer tetrahedra with tiny metal beads glued to the tetrahedral tips. In parallel to the velocity measurements by means of X-ray particle tracking, we determined the liquid fraction of the overflowing foam by electric conductivity measurements using electrode pairs. The experiment was performed with aqueous foams of two different surfactant concentrations but similar bubble size range and superficial gas velocity, yielding around 10% liquid fraction near the weir. Employing the particles as tools for flow tracing in X-ray image sequences, we measured the velocity profile in vertical direction above the weir crest and found that the maximum velocity is reached underneath the free surface of the overflowing foam. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in the Measurement and Application of Particle Tracking)
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12 pages, 2932 KiB  
Article
Performance Evaluation of the Current Birmingham PEPT Cameras
by David J. Parker, Dawid M. Hampel and Tzanka Kokalova Wheldon
Appl. Sci. 2022, 12(14), 6833; https://doi.org/10.3390/app12146833 - 6 Jul 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1407
Abstract
Positron emission particle tracking (PEPT), a powerful technique for studying fluid and granular flows, has been developed at Birmingham over the last 30 years. In PEPT, a “positron camera” is used to detect the pairs of back-to-back photons emitted from positron annihilation. Accurate [...] Read more.
Positron emission particle tracking (PEPT), a powerful technique for studying fluid and granular flows, has been developed at Birmingham over the last 30 years. In PEPT, a “positron camera” is used to detect the pairs of back-to-back photons emitted from positron annihilation. Accurate high-speed tracking of small tracer particles requires a positron camera with high sensitivity and data rate. In this paper, we compare the sensitivity and data rates obtained from the three principal cameras currently used at Birmingham. The recently constructed SuperPEPT and MicroPEPT systems have much higher sensitivity than the longstanding ADAC Forte and can generate data at much higher rates, greatly extending the potential for PEPT studies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in the Measurement and Application of Particle Tracking)
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