Patent ID: 8820137
Filing Date: 2014-09-02
Classification: G01N,G21C,Y02E

Abstract:
1. A method of determining a void rate in a biphase gas/liquid medium, the void rate corresponding to a fraction of a volume of gas corresponding to gas bubbles in the gas/liquid medium to a total volume of gas and liquid in the gas/liquid medium, the method comprising: defining a size of the largest gas bubbles in the gas/liquid medium by optical measurement; deploying a bulk elastic wave resonator in contact and coupled acoustically with the biphase gas/liquid medium; measuring, by nonlinear resonant ultrasound spectroscopy of the biphase gas/liquid medium in terms of frequencies and amplitudes of acoustic excitation in a given range of frequencies based on the size of the largest gas bubbles and in a given range of amplitudes, bulk elastic waves emitted and detected at said resonator, resulting in a set of resonance curves exhibiting maxima; determining a straight line defined by the maxima of said set of resonance curves having different excitation amplitudes; determining a slope of said straight line; and determining the void rate based on said slope.