Experimental Acoustic Determination of the Void Fraction in Two-Phase Flow in Horizontal Pipelines (original) (raw)

2014, Journal of Mechanics Engineering and Automation

In multi-phase flows, the phases can flow and arranged in different spatial configurations in the pipe, which called flow patterns. This type of flow is found in the oil, chemical and nuclear industries. For example, in the production and transport of oil and gas, the identification of the flow patterns are essential for answering those questions which are related to the economic return of the field, such as, measuring the volumetric flow, determining the pressure drop along the flow lines, production management and supervision. In offshore production, these factors are very important. This paper presents a new method for measuring the void fraction in horizontal pipelines, taking the air as gas in water-air two-phase flow. Through acoustic analysis of the frequency response of the pipe, the method gets the parameters to changes in runoff regime, in an experimental arrangement constructed on a small scale. The main advantages are the non-intrusive characteristic and easy to implement. The paper is composed of a qualitative experimental evaluation and transducers (microphone) which are used to analyze variations in the response accompanying variations in void and flow pattern changes. Changes are imposed and controlled by a two-phase flow experimental simulation rig, including a measurement cell constituted of an external casing that can isolate the measurement from the environmental background noise fitted with acoustic pressure transducers radially arranged, and the impact of a monitored excitation mechanism. The signals which captured by the microphones are processed and analyzed by checking their frequency contents changes according to the amount of air in the mixture.

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