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A new low-cost and nonradioactive industrial field prototype device is described that has provided, continuously and in real time, the vertical profile of the 2-phase liquid within oil field tank separators by using ultrasonic waves. The results have shown that the device has determined the profile of the 2-phase liquid within a relative error of [plusmn] 3%.

In the oil industry, many applications require the measurement of more than one liquid level interface, often in challenging environments. In this paper, a new ultrasonic-based technique has been developed to determine oil, emulsion, and water levels in oil tanks. It consists of a compact and programmable ultrasound-based multilayer level measurement device for which a feed-forward neural network is implemented. The advantages of this method over current methods include contactless distance measurement, higher accuracy, lower cost, simpler setup, and not using ionizing radiation. The other advantage of this technique over light-based methods is its insensitivity to a dusty and smoky environment and independence of the object material and surface. Preliminary experiments have been conducted on the device. In this paper, the design and operating parameters of the device are discussed, and evidence of satisfactory performance is given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]