A review of solid–fluid selection options for optical-based measurements in single-phase liquid, two-phase liquid–liquid and multiphase solid–liquid flows

Abstract

Experimental techniques based on optical measurement principles have experienced significant growth in recent decades. They are able to provide detailed information with high-spatiotemporal resolution on important scalar (e.g., temperature, concentration, and phase) and vector (e.g., velocity) fields in single-phase or multiphase flows, as well as interfacial characteristics in the latter, which has been instrumental to step-changes in our fundamental understanding of these flows, and the development and validation of advanced models with ever-improving predictive accuracy and reliability. Relevant techniques rely upon well-established optical methods such as direct photography, laser-induced fluorescence, laser Doppler velocimetry/phase Doppler anemometry, particle image/tracking velocimetry, and variants thereof. The accuracy of the resulting data depends on numerous factors including, importantly, the refractive indices of the solids and liquids used. The best results are obtained when the observational materials have closely matched refractive indices, including test-section walls, liquid phases, and any suspended particles. This paper reviews solid–liquid and solid–liquid–liquid refractive-index-matched systems employed in different fields, e.g., multiphase flows, turbomachinery, bio-fluid flows, with an emphasis on liquid–liquid systems. The refractive indices of various aqueous and organic phases found in the literature span the range 1.330–1.620 and 1.251–1.637, respectively, allowing the identification of appropriate combinations to match selected transparent or translucent plastics/polymers, glasses, or custom materials in single-phase liquid or multiphase liquid–liquid flow systems. In addition, the refractive indices of fluids can be further tuned with the use of additives, which also allows for the matching of important flow similarity parameters such as density and viscosity.