Imaging stirred-vessel macromixing using electrical resistance tomography

An 8-plane 16-sensor ring electrical resistance tomography (ERT) system was designed and installed within a 1.5-m-dia. plant-scale stirred uessel. Results are reported for the unsteady dynamic macromixing of miscible liquids following a pulse addition of brine tracer. Acquired data, afier reconstruction, is conveniently represented as a stack of 2-D tomograms and 3-D solid body isosurjaces, thereby providing an equiualent of medical whole-body scanning for a chemical process unit. The results demonstrate the ability of ERT to distinguish the different mixing patterns from two types of impeller in 3-D and to monitor plant-scale miscible liquid mixing processes aperimentally, with good resolution in both space and time.