Abstract: To achieve accurate and rapid measurement of particle size distribution (PSD), a key parameter of two-phase flows, this paper develops a new measurement method by combining ultrasonic attenuation effect and an artificial bee colony inversion algorithm. We design a suspension parameter measurement system that uses a focused ultrasonic sensor to obtain ultrasonic attenuation signals, and calculate an effective experimental attenuation coefficient. A theoretical attenuation coefficient is obtained according to the theoretical sound attenuation model, and an error function for theoretical and experimental attenuation coefficients is constructed and used as the objective function. Then, we adopt an artificial bee colony algorithm to optimize the objective function, and obtain an optimal PSD through inversion calculation. To verify the method, experimental tests are conducted on suspended load samples of three different PSDs, and the sieving method is used as a control experiment to analyze error factors. The results show our new method is practically applicable and of high accuracy in the tested range, and it provides a new approach to measurement of PSD of suspended load.

Key words: solid-liquid two-phase flow, suspension, particle size distribution, artificial bee colony algorithm, ultrasonic attenuation, sound attenuation model