Combination Measurement Method Of Oil-Water Two-Phase Flow With Mini-Conductance Array Probes And Ring Conductance Sensor

The flow structure and the phase inversion have great influence on the flow measurement in vertical and inclined upward oil-water two-phase flow. This paper describes the design of the mini- conductance array probes measurement system. With the combination mini-conductance array probes and VMEA measurement system, a new method is proposed for the research of the flow structure of oil-water two-phase flow. By the integrated analysis of the signals of mini-conductance array probes and VMEA sensor, following conclusions have been achieved:1. Different flow patterns result in very different output waveforms of the mini- conductance array probes in vertical upward oil-water two-phase flow. According to the characterization of the waveform, three kinds of flow pattern, which are oil-in-water flow, transitional flow and water-in-oil flow, were classified efficiently. The conductance fluctuating signals of VMEA sensor were processed by recurrence analysis method and the results indicate that the conductance fluctuating signals of VMEA sensor could also identify the three flow patterns, which is consistent with mini- conductance array probes results.2. Based on the analysis of the waveform of the mini-conductance array probes and the conductance fluctuating signals of VMEA sensor, we get the vertical upward oil-water two-phase flow pattern map in the range of this flow condition. Compared with other four published vertical upward oil-water two-phase flow pattern transition boundary models, it is founded that the oil-water two-phase flow model based on kinematic wave theory is good for the transition from transitional flow to water-in-oil flow pattern in the range of higher water superficial velocity, and the former model based on experimental observation is good for the transition from transitional flow to water-in-oil flow pattern in the range of low water superficial velocity.3. With the combination of mini-conductance array probes and VMEA sensor, four typical flow patterns (D O/W PS, D O/W CT, TF and D W/O) are identified efficiently in inclined upward oil-water two-phase flow. It is pointed out that the DC conductance signals of VMEA sensor can indicate the flow structures of four different flow patterns in macroscopic point of view and the output signal waveforms of mini-conductance array probes can identify the different flow pattern structures of different position of the pipe. In addition, we get the relationship between correlation coefficient of the oil-water two-phase flow and flow characteristics.