In this paper, thermal processing of starch slurry in a Couette-Taylor flow (CTF) apparatus was investigated. Gelatinized starch dispersion, after treatment in the CTF apparatus, was characterized using such parameters like starch granule diameters (or average diameter), starch granule swelling degree (quantifying the amount of water absorbed by starch granules) and concentration of dissolved starch. These parameters were affected mostly by the process temperature, although the impact of the axial flow or rotor rotation on them was also observed. Moreover, the analysis of results showed a relatively good correlation between these parameters, as well as, between those parameter and apparent viscosity of gelatinized starch dispersion. Meanwhile, the increase in the value of the apparent viscosity and in shear-tinning behaviour of dispersion was associated with the progress of starch processing in the CTF apparatus. Finally, the CTF apparatuses of different geometries were compared using numerical simulation of the process. The results of the simulation indicated that the apparatus scaling-up without increasing the width of the gap between cylinders results in higher mechanical energy consumption per unit of processed starch slurry.

This paper presents a geomagnetic detection method for pipeline defects using complete ensemble empirical mode decomposition with adaptive noise (CEEMDAN) and wavelet energy product (WEP) – Teager energy operator (TEO), which improves detection accuracy and defect identification ability as encountering strong inference noise. The measured signal is first subtly decomposed via CEEMDAN into a series of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs), which are then distinguished by the Hurst exponent to reconstruct the filtered signal. Subsequently, the scale signals are obtained by using gradient calculation and discrete wavelet transform and are then fused by using WEP. Finally, TEO is implemented to enhance defect signal amplitude, completing geomagnetic detection of pipeline defects. The simulation results created by magnetic dipole in a noisy environment, indoor experiment results and field testing results certify that the proposed method outperforms ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD)-gradient, EEMD-WEP-TEO, CEEMDAN-gradient in terms of detection deviation, peak side-lobe ratio (PSLR) and integrated side-lobe ratio (ISLR).