Annular Channel Based Sensor Fusion For Measuring Horizontal Oil-Water Two-Phase Flow

Multiphase flow phenomenon, which widely exists in nature and human being, is closely related to our daily life. Oil-water two-phase flow, as a kind of multiphase flow, is common in petroleum industries. Accurate measurement of oil-water two-phase flow guarantees proper design and safely operation of related industrial facilities. Oil-water two-phase flow is time-varying, non-linear and complex, which makes the measurement a main challenge in industry and research. The vital parameters of oil-water two-phase flow are flow rate and phase fraction. However, one kind of sensor measures only one of them. As a result, a combination of two different kinds of sensors is a popular method in two-phase flow measurement.Annular channel flow meter, as a kind of differential pressure flow meter, measures the flow rate, and forms a stable annular flow at the same time, which is ideal for phase fraction measurement. In this paper, horizontal oil-water two phase flow sensors are designed with a combination of electrical phase fraction sensors and long-waist cone meter, which is a kind of differential pressure meter.The main works accomplished in this research are stated as follow:(1) A Conductance Ring Coupled Cone(CRCC) sensor was designed based on long-waist cone meter and ring-shaped conductance probes. Two kinds of installing method of conductance rings were presented. An FEM simulation was carried out to gain the sensitivity map of both method, and installing two rings on the inner pipe wall was chosen as the best one according to simulation results. The influence of geometrical parameters on sensitivity map was analyzed through simulations. The whole structural parameters of CRCC sensor were optimized concerning structural optimization of long-waist cone meter.(2) A prototype of CRCC sensor was produced for experiments, and data fusion method was used in dynamic estimation of flow parameters. Firstly, static calibration was carried out to verify the sensor's response. Then the sensor was tested in two-phase flow dynamic experiments. Finally a Kalman filter was used to estimate the flow parameters dynamically. The relative error of oil mass flow rate was 2.3% and water mass flow rate was 4.8% according to the results.(3) A design of Conductance and Capacitance Assisted Cone(CCAC) sensor was presented, as CRCC sensor doesn't work under oil-continuous conditions. Capacitance sensor was test alone, and it worked well in experiments. And then capacitance sensor was added into CRCC sensor to form a CCAC sensor. The structure of CCAC sensor was analyzed. A prototype of CCAC sensor was produced and experiments were carried out. The sensor's performance was presented and analyzed.In this study, the primary design of annular channel sensor for horizontal oil-water two-phase flow is presented. The sensor was tested and analyzed, which offers foundation and reference for further improvement of multiphase sensor.