A research organization in Cambridge, MA used PME's MicroScale Conductivity and Temperature Instrument (MSCTI) to resolve a mixing issue during the scale-up of a process step. A factorial design was used to optimize the conditions for the conductivity-mixing test, which consisted of injecting a small volume of high-conductivity tracer solution into the full vessel volume and monitoring decay of the response until a stable value was attained.
PME supplied a custom Fast CT sensor designed for direct connection to a Nortek ADV. By using the eddy correlation technique, this instrument combination was able to quantify the discharge of groundwater through permeable sediments.
Crusius J, Peter B, Dirk K, Laura E. 2008. Eddy Correlation Measurements of Submarine Groundwater Discharge. Marine Chemistry 109: 77-85. View the Abstract
Double Diffusive Plumes
Researchers with the University of Alberta are using the MSCTI to measure temperature and conductivity as it moves down the center of a plume. They are studying double diffusive plumes where the plume is initially less dense than the ambient fluid. This turbulent plume of hot and saline water rises into fresh, room temperature water. This experiment models the dispersal of hydrogen sulfide through the flaring of sour gas.
PME's fast conductivity sensors are being used in a series of investigations at the Norwegian University of Science & Technology (NTNU) Coriolis rotating basin facility in Trondheim, Norway. The sensors are used in a laboratory to study the behavior of dense (saline) gravity currents in rotating flows, as part of a wider modeling investigation into large-scale dense oceanic outflows from the Northern Seas into the North Atlantic.
