No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Industrial flow measurement is a challenging area and in high demand. Tremendous research has been carried out to improve and solve problems in the flow measurement system. Thus, new techniques are produced and a wider range of flow measurement solutions have become available in market. This study has introduced a new technique that is useful and proves to be applicable in industrial flow measurement system. Microwave Doppler radar sensor was used to extract useful information of the solid flow characteristics. The amplitude level of the Doppler signal is analysed instead of the frequency shift that is normally used in conventional Doppler radar sensor. The relation between the amplitude level and the characteristic of the flow was determined to define the characteristics of the flow. The solids weight and dimension are among the characteristics that are investigated in this study. Microwave sensor circuits based on Doppler radar technique operating at 2.45GHz and 10.58GHz were designed, constructed and tested. The 2.45GHz system was built in the initial study and pre-testing of the Doppler radar sensor system prior to the construction of the 10.58GHz system that was later used for the measurement purposes. The antennas and circuit analyses were carried out in building an optimum sensor system. Two-antenna and two-antenna with copper plate are two new antenna configurations that are applied in single solid flow measurement analysis. The flow measurements were carried out using different types of solids ranges from 4mm to 20mm sizes and 0.02g to 0.63g of weight for single and multiple solids flow. The linear relations of the reflected power and the solids characteristics determined from the analyses are found to be useful in differentiating the type of solids and measuring the total weight of solids flowing.

M.Sc. (Mechanical Engineering) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

In November 2000, the 4th Workshop on Measurement Techniques for Stationary and Transient Multiphase Flows took place in Rossendorf. Three previous workshops of this series were national meetings; this time participants from different countries took part. The programme comprised 14 oral presentations, 9 of which are included in these proceedings in full length. A special highlight of the meeting was the main lecture "Ultrasonic doppler method for bubbly flow measurement" of Professor Masanori Aritomi, Dr. Hiroshige Kikura and Dr. Yumiko Suzuki, which was read by Dr. Hiroshige Kikura. The workshop again dealt with high-resolution phase distribution and phase velocity measurement techniques based on electrical conductivity, ultrasound, laser light and high-speed cinematography. A number of presentations were dedicated to the application of wire-mesh sensors developed by FZR for different applications used by the Technical Universities of Delft and Munich and the Tokyo Institute of Technology. The presentations were in particular: M. Aritomi, H. Kikura, Y. Suzuki (Tokyo Institute of Technology): Ultrasonic doppler method for bubbly flow measurement V. V. Kontelev, V. I. Melnikov (TU Nishny Novgorod): An ultrasonic mesh sensor for two-phase flow visualisation A. V. Duncev (TU Nishny Novgorod): Waveguide ultrasonic liquid level transducers for power generating equipment H.-M. Prasser, E. Krepper, D. Lucas, J. Zschau (FZR), D. Peters, G. Pietzsch, W. Taubert, M. Trepte (Teletronic Ingenieurbüro GmbH), Fast wire-mesh sensors for gas-liquid flows and decomposition of gas fraction profiles according to bubble size classes D. Scholz, C. Zippe (FZR): Validation of bubble size measurements with wire-mesh sensors by high-speed video observation A. Manera, H. Hartmann, W.J.M. de Kruijf, T.H.J.J. van der Hagen, R.F. Mudde, (TU Delft, IRI): Low-pressure dynamics of a natural-circulation two-phase flow loop H. Schmidt, O. Herbst, W. Kastner, W. Köhler (Siemens AG KWU): Measuring methods for the investigation of the flow phenomena during external pressure vessel cooling of the boiling water reactor SWR1000 A. Traichel, W. Kästner, S. Schefter, V. Schneider, S. Fleischer, T. Gocht, R. Hampel (HTWS Zittau/Görlitz - IPM): Verification of simulation results of mixture level transients and evaporation processes in level measurement systems using needle-shaped probes S. Richter, M. Aritomi (Tokyo Institute of Technology): Methods for studies on bubbly flow characteristics applying a new electrode-mesh tomograph

In these experiments, we tested the hypothesis that sympathetic escape in skeletal muscle is mediated through a fall in parenchymal cell oxygen levels following blood flow reduction. This hypothesis predicts that if the fall in parenchymal cell PO₂ during stimulation can be minimized, escape should be reduced. To test this prediction, we studied the behavior of superficial arterioles of the cat sartorius muscle during 3 minutes of sympathetic nerve stimulation. The muscle was covered with silicone oil equilibrated with 0%, 5% and 10% oxygen. During stimulation under 0% oxygen, 90% of visible arterioles showed a significant secondary relaxation (escape). The relaxation averaged 55% of the initial constriction. Under 5% oxygen, resting arteriolar diameter was reduced by an average of 12% and escape was significantly reduced throughout the arteriolar network. Under 10% ambient oxygen, there was an additional 5% reduction in resting diameter and a further reduction of escape. Escape was not attenuated when control diameter was reduced to the same degree with arginine vasopressin, suggesting that the effect of oxygen was specific rather than secondary to an increase in vascular tone. The above observations are also consistent with the hypothesis that escape is mediated through a fall in vascular wall PO₂. To evaluate this possibility, periarteriolar and parenchymal tissue PO₂ were measured with oxygen microelectrodes during sympathetic stimulation under 0% and 10% oxygen suffusion of the muscle. In the proximal arterioles, the periarteriolar PO₂ during control and during stimulation was identical under 0% and 10% oxygen yet escape was reduced by 75% under 10% oxygen. Similarly, escape was reduced 90% in the distal arterioles under 10% oxygen but periarteriolar PO₂ was very nearly the same as that measured under 0% oxygen. In contrast, mean parenchymal tissue PO₂ fell to low levels during stimulation under 0% oxygen but did not fall below normal levels during stimulation under 10% oxygen. These findings argue against the hypothesis that a fall in vascular wall PO₂ is responsible for escape. The findings are consistent with the hypothesis that sympathetic escape in skeletal muscle is mediated through a fall in parenchymal cell PO₂. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)

Evidence suggests different sections of the arteriolar network supplying muscle can respond independently and this may provide a mechanism for the localized distribution of blood flow. This hypothesis was tested in the microcirculation of the cat sartorius muscle by measurement of arteriolar diameter changes during muscle contraction and sympathetic nerve stimulation in each consecutive section of the network. The diameter changes were referenced to the initial distribution of resistance across the network, as determined from arteriolar pressure measurements and morphometric data. This led to an estimate of the change in network resistance. Unlike previous reports, the most distal arterioles dilated little during muscle contraction and our resistance estimate indicates these vessels play an insignificant role in functional hyperemia. The more proximal, third order arterioles dilated proportionately more than other arteriolar orders and made the largest single contribution to resting resistance. Similarly, these vessels were the largest single site of resistance change during sympathetic stimulation. Together, these findings suggest the third order arterioles play a dominant role in regulating flow to the capillaries that each supplies. Antagonism of sympathetic control during muscle contraction has been attributed to direct inhibition of vascular smooth muscle contraction and to inhibition of sympathetic neurotransmission. Evidence to support the latter mechanism comes from the observation that functional dilation is reduced with exogenous norepinephrine as compared to sympathetic stimulation. However, exogenous norepinephrine may bind to both alpha-1 and alpha-2 adrenergic receptors, whereas that released by sympathetic stimulation may bind primarily to alpha-1 receptors. Since this difference could be significant, functional dilation after systemic injection of norepinephrine or phenylephrine, a selective alpha-1 agonist, was compared to that during sympathetic stimulation. In contrast to the findings with norepinephrine, functional dilation after phenylephrine did not differ from that observed during sympathetic stimulation. This indicates the dilator substance(s) released during exercise may selectively inhibit alpha-1 mediated vasoconstriction but less effectively inhibit vasoconstriction mediated by alpha-2 receptors. Furthermore, these findings suggest that the vasodilator mechanism may act primarily at the level of the vascular smooth muscle, without appreciable pre-junctional inhibition of sympathetic nerves.

No description available.

Optical feedback interferometry is a sensing technique with relative recent implementation for the interrogation of fluidic systems. The sensing principle is based on the perturbation of the laser emission parameters induced by the reinjection in the laser cavity of light back-scattered from a distant target. The technique allows for the development of compact and noninvasive sensors that measure various parameters related to the motion of moving targets. In particular, optical feedback interferometers take advantage of the Doppler effect to measure the velocity of tracers in flowing liquids. These important features of the optical feedback interferometry technique make it wellsuited for a variety of applications in chemical engineering and biomedical fields, where accurate monitoring of the flows is needed. This thesis presents the implementation of optical feedback interferometry based sensors in multiple fluidic systems where local velocity or flow rate are directly measured. We present an application-centered study of the optical feedback sensing technique used for flow measurement at the microscale with focus on the reliability of the signal processing methods for flows in the single and the multiple scattering regimes. Further, we present experimental results of ex vivo measurements where the optical feedback sensor is proposed as an alternative system for myography. In addition we present a real-time implementation for the assessment of non-steady flows in a millifluidic configuration. A semi-automatized system for single particle detection in a microchannel is proposed and demonstrated. Finally, an optical feedback based laser sensor is implemented for the characterization of the interactions between two immiscible liquid-liquid flowing at the microscale, and the measurement is compared to a theoretical model developed to describe the hydrodynamics of both fluids in a chemical microreactor. The present manuscript describes an important contribution to the implementation of optical feedback sensors for fluidic and microfluidic applications. It also presents remarkable experimental results that open new horizons to the optical feedback interferometry.