Hans Zettler talked about his PhD research work and this is illustrated by the following abstract to on of his papers.
The flow pattern of water in a corrugated heat exchanger channel has been investigated using the non-invasive technique of Positron Emission Particle Tracking (PEPT) in a plate heat exchanger (PHE). PEPT allows an individual neutrally buoyant particle moving at speeds of up to 10m/s to be tracked in three dimensions to within 1mm or less. The technique produces particle trajectories and velocity profiles, and has also been used to detect low flow velocity and re-circulation zones in the flow channel. In addition, it allows for the determination of residence time distributions over a variety of flow rates, plate corrugation angles, and plate set-ups (side- and diagonal flow). PEPT data obtained at the University of Birmingham is compared to data obtained by visual observation and fouling experiments obtained at the University of Surrey, to identify how different flow paths influence the fouling behaviour in a PHE.
