Steam quality measurements in a high pressure system

Abstract

The neutron scattering device has been successfully developed to measure steam qualtiy in a two-phase steam-water flow. This technique is based on the fact that neutrons lose a significant amount of energy as they collide with hydrogen nucleus of the liquid phase in a two-phase steam-water flow. As a result, the amount of slowing-down neutrons is proportional to the amount of liquid or void fraction in the steam. Consistency of the developed scatterometer was checked with static experiments, which employed a solid material (lucite) to simulate the water fraction. Testing the device in the actual flow pipe showed that the density of compressed water was proportional to the neutron count rate.