In oilfield development, vertical longitudinal multipole conductance sensors (VLMCS) have been widely used to measure the water holdup in the oil-water two-phase flow. When water is a continuous phase and oil is a discrete phase, the oil phase distribution has a great influence on the VLMCS output. In this paper, a 3D theoretical model of the VLMCS is established, and the output response characteristics are studied, considering an oil bubble behavior in the 3D model. The task is performed by establishing a spherical coordinate system and a cylindrical coordinate system with varying mesh sizes and axial and radial positions. At the same time, finite element analysis is used to study the VLMCS output response characteristics of multiple oil bubbles. The results reveal the effect of oil bubble size and position on the VLMCS output response characteristics, which is of great significance for the measurement of the oil-water two-phase flow parameters and optimization of the VLMCS design. The established model provides a theoretical basis for the engineering applications of the VLMCS.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
G. P. Lucas, R. Mishra, N. Panayotopoulos, “Power law approximations to gas volume fraction and velocity profiles in low void fraction vertical gas-liquid flows,” Flow Meas. Instrum., 15(5-6), 271-283 (2004).
T. Takamasa, T. Goto, T. Hibiki, et al., “Experimental study of interfacial area transport of bubbly flow in small-diameter tube,” Int. J. Multiphase Flow, 29(3), 395-409 (2003).
S. Kim, X. Y. Fu, X. Wang, et al., “Development of the miniaturized four-sensor conductivity probe and the signal processing scheme,” Int. J. Heat Mass Transf., 43(22), 4101-4118 (2000).
J. J. Jeong, B. Ozar, A. Dixit, et al., “Interfacial area transport of vertical upward air-water two-phase flow in an annulus channel,” Int. J. Heat Mass Transf., 29(1), 178-193 (2008).
R. Mishra, G. P. Lucas, H. Kieckhoefer, “A model for obtaining the velocity vectors of spherical droplets in multiphase flows from measurements using an orthogonal four-sensor probe,” Meas. Sci. Technol., 13(9):1488-1498 (2002).
G. P. Lucas, R. Mishra, “Measurement of bubble velocity components in a swirling gas-liquid pipe flow using a local four-sensor conductance probe,” Meas. Sci. Technol., 16(3), 749-758 (2005).
N. Panagiotopoulos and G. P. Lucas, “Simulation of a local four-sensor conductance probe using a rotating dual-sensor probe,” Meas. Sci. Technol., 18(8), 2563-2569 (2007).
C. Tan, F. Dong, and M. Wu, “Identification of gas-liquid two-phase flow regime through ERT-based measurement and feature extraction,” Flow Meas. Instrum., 18(5-6), 255-261 (2007).
S. A. Razzak, S. Barghi, and J. X. Zhu, “Electrical resistance tomography for flow characterization of a gas-liquid-solid three-phase circulating fluidized bed,” Chem. Eng. Sci., 62(24), 7253-7263 (2007).
L. Pakzad, F. Ein-Mozaffari, and P. Chan, “Using electrical resistance tomography and computational fluid dynamics modeling to study the formation of cavern in the mixing of pseudoplastic fluids possessing yield stress,” Chem. Eng. Sci., 63(9), 2508-2522 (2008).
G. P. Lucas, J. C. Cory, and R. C. Waterfall, “A six-electrode local probe for measuring solids velocity and volume fraction profiles in solid-water flows,” Meas. Sci. Technol., 11(10), 1498-1509 (2000).
M. Fossa, G. Guglielmini, and A. Marchitto, “Intermittent flow parameters from void fraction analysis,” Flow Meas. Instrum., 14(4-5), 161-168 (2003).
N. Jin, J. Wang, L. Xu, et al., “Optimization of a conductance probe with vertical multi-electrode array for the measurement of oil-water two-phase flow,” 2nd International Conference on Machine Learning and Cybernetics, Xi’an, China, 899-905 (2003).
L. Hu, X. Liu, Y. Zhang, et al., “A kind of conductance sensor for measuring flow rate and watercut in oil/water two-phase flow,” Well Logg. Technol., 26(2), 154-157 (2002).
J. Hu, X. Liu, Y. Zhang, et al., “The application of cross-correlation technique based on conductance sensor in production wells,” 4th International Symposium on Measurement Techniques for Multiphase Flows, Hangzhou, China, 573-578 (2004).
X. Liu, J. Hu, C. Huang, et al., “Conductance sensor for measurement of the fluid watercut and flowrate in production wells,” 5th International Symposium on Measurement Techniques for Multiphase Flows, Aomen, China, 440-443 (2006).
X. Liu, Research on Multiphase Flow Logging Method and New Type Sensor, Dissertation, Northeast Petroleum University, China, 46-68 (1996).
C. Tan, H. Wu, and F. Dong, “Horizontal oil-water two-phase flow measurement with information fusion of conductance ring sensor and cone meter,” Flow Meas. Instrum., 34, 83-90 (2013), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.flowmeasinst.2013.08.0062013.
L. Li, R. Dang, D. Zhao, et al., “The analysis and study on electromagnetic field of conductance water fraction sensor,” 3rd International Congress on Image & Signal Processing, IEEE, 4271-4275 (2010), https://doi.org/10.1109/CISP.2010.5647423.
Y. Li an X. Li, “Sensing characteristics of conductance sensor for measuring the volume fraction and axial velocity in oil-water pipe flow,” Int. J. Simul. Process Model., 7(1/2), 98 (2012), 10.1504/ijspm.2012.047864.
X. Zhang, “2D analysis for the virtual current distribution in an electromagnetic flow meter with a bubble at various axis positions,” Meas. Sci. Technol., 9(9), 1501-1517 (1998), https://doi.org/10.1088/0957-0233/9/9/019.
X. Zhang and Y. Li, “Calculation of the virtual current in an electromagnetic flow meter with one bubble using 3D model,” ISA Trans., 43(2), 189-194 (2004), https://doi.org/10.1016/S0019-0578(07)60029-9.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Translated from Khimiya i Tekhnologiya Topliv i Masel, No. 3, pp. 77–82, May–June, 2021.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Li, Y., Yang, Y., Zhang, J. et al. Theoretical Research on Output Response Characteristics of Vertical Longitudinal Multipole Conductance Sensor by Discrete Phase Distribution. Chem Technol Fuels Oils 57, 529–540 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10553-021-01275-2
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10553-021-01275-2