Experimental study of liquid-solid two phase flow over a step using PIV

The present investigation focuses on the water-sand flow through a rectangular tunnel with a step using the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). Two cameras with appropriate optical filters have been used to capture each phase image separately. The optical filters were selected according to the optical properties of the sand and fluorescent tracers. Through data processing the experimental flow field such as the velocity profiles of sand and water had been obtained. In order to compare with the experiment, the steady state two phase flow fields were simulated using RANS method with k-omega SST turbulence model. It is noted that the numerical results matches the experimental results fairly good. Furthermore, the flow rates obtained from experimental and numerical velocity profiles also have a good match with the measurement by flow meter. The flow analysis shows that the water velocity variation induced by the presence of the step in the water-sand flow is equivalent to those cases with low sand concentration. However, the sand velocity in downstream region is 5% greater than the water velocity when the cross section is reduced in 25%.