Detección de Burbujas en Columnas de Fluido Por Medio De Ultrasonidos

Abstract

This document shows the results obtained for the design and assembly of a laboratory-scale prototype to detect bubbles produced in liquid columns using ultrasound. The method used consisted in evaluating the voltages received by a piezo-electric transducer, which is stimulated with an ultrasonic signal coming from another ceramic device of similar characteristics. This arrangement was coupled to a column of acrylic material, containing fluid in its interior, then relate these voltages to the size of the air bubbles generated in the interior of the fluid. The bubble size measurement was performed by means of digital image analysis. In this process, a computational algorithm was programmed in MATLAB, which allowed determining the average size of the bubbles from a series of videos. Subsequently, a data acquisition, filtering and analysis process was performed based on the PSoC development interface, to observe the behavior and voltage variations coming from the passage of the bubble through the sensors located in the acoustic chamber, finally, the relationship between bubble sizes and voltages is found. The results obtained corroborate that the possibility of detecting bubbles by means of the proposed ultrasonic method is feasible.