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Multiphase flow measurement with electrical capacitance tomography and microwave sensors

Authors :
Ramli, Mimi Faisyalini
Yang, Wuqiang
Ozanyan, Krikor
Publication Year :
2018
Publisher :
University of Manchester, 2018.

Abstract

As electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) is inexpensive, non-invasive and non-intrusive, it has become one of the most established tomography modalities. However, ECT is currently being used only for low permittivity dielectric and non-conductive material in the oil-continuous flow. This is the first time in research that the capacitance sensor is proposed to be integrated with a microwave sensor to measure the parameters of a multiphase flow. The two presented dual-modality systems are (1) ECT and microwave cavity resonant sensor (MRS) and (2) ECT and microwave tomography (MWT). For oil and gas application, a dual modality system of 8-electrode ECT and MRS has been developed for two purposes to (1) identify flow pattern and (2) estimate water-in-liquid ratio (WLR). Rather than using a tomographic reconstruction, a simpler technique of signal processing and characterisation based on the capacitance and resonant frequency data is implemented. The system demonstrates a 100% compliance of detecting stratified and annular flows for 18 tested conditions. The initial estimation of WLR is reasonable with the majority of the conditions resulted in less than 5% error. This dual-modality is advantageous as it works for both oil-continuous and water-continuous flows and minimises flow-regime-dependency. In addition, this new dual-modality system is non-radiation, non-intrusive and non-invasive. A 12-electrode ECT sensor and an MWT have been designed for the fluidised bed application to (1) image permittivity distribution and (2) investigate the effects of higher moisture content on solids concentration images. For image reconstruction with ECT, sensitivity map evaluation was first conducted to justify whether a sensitivity map according to the test material should be updated. The results show that a generic sensitivity map generated with an empty background is appropriate to reconstruct images for most defined distributions except for an annular flow with a thin layer. Experiments with a dual-modality system of ECT and MWT were then carried out to image gas, powder and liquid. The result shows 50% complementary function of ECT and MWT, indicating that good images can be obtained with MWT at higher moisture content.

Details

Language :
English
Database :
British Library EThOS
Publication Type :
Dissertation/ Thesis
Accession number :
edsble.823056
Document Type :
Electronic Thesis or Dissertation