Experimental Comparison Between Wire Mesh and Electrical Capacitance Tomography Sensors to Predict a Two-Phase Flow Behaviour and Patterns in Inclined Pipe

Ali I Hameed,Lokman A Abdulkareem,Raid A Mahmood

doi:10.47577/technium.v3i5.3938

Ali I Hameed, Lokman A Abdulkareem + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.47577/technium.v3i5.3938

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Abstract

Two-phase flow behaviour and its flow patterns have a significant effect in many applications in industry. Oil-gas is one of the two-phase flow types that have many applications in petroleum and power stations. An oil-gas two-phase flow behaviour and flow patterns have been investigated in an inclined pipe using two different tomography sensors: Wire Mesh sensor (WMS) and Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT). A special experimental facility was designed and built to operate the tow-phase flow application in the inclined pipe with the various angle of inclination. A set of experimental data were collected using operating conditions which covered a two-phase flow range of superficial velocity of gas (Usl) from 0.05 to 0.52 m/s and superficial velocity of liquid (Usg) from 0.05 to 4.7 m/s at atmospheric pressure and room temperature. Three inclined angles to change the pipe’s inclination 45, 60, and 80-degree were applied in the experiments. The Comparison between the Wire Mesh Sensor (WMS) and Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT) was completed experimentally. The results revealed that there is a good agreement between the two sensors, however; the WMS had a higher frequency which was calculated 1000 frames per second compared with the ECT which worked at 200 frames per second.

Highlights

Multiphase flow has many applications and has many forms
The author reported that the orientation of the flow direction of the two-phase flow has a significant effect on the flow pattern change and flow behavior
A set of data have been recorded using some specific techniques and sensors, such as wire mesh sensor, and Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT), they were joined to the experiment structure

Summary

Introduction

Multiphase flow has many applications and has many forms. One of the most widely used is a gasliquid two-phase flow. Being the proven employed best technique in multiphase flows with relatively non conducting mixtures, the ECT is has proven relatively to be an exceptional technique.To obtain images in the ECT technique, the difference in electrical permittivity of the two phases should be considered. it is exploited by consecutive measurement of dispersed void fraction according to: Xie et al (1995) [17], Williams and Beck (1995)[18] .The completed study of WMS in vertical pipes of 6.7cm diameter using air-water blend fluid concluded that there will be an ability to manage the full pipe flow; the outcome was data in form of cross-sectional void fraction in the time series according to Azzopardi et al [19].

Results

Conclusion