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International Society for Industrial Process Tomography

6th World Congress on Industrial Process Tomography

Visualisation and measurement of 3 phase (air water oil) flow and 2 phase flow (sand water) with electrical tomography

K M Primrose1, C Qiu1, G T Bolton1,2, A M Talmon3,4, N Glen5, A Ross5, D Learmouth5

1Industrial Tomography Systems plc, 39 Deansgate, Manchester, M3 2BA, UK

Ken.primrose@itoms.com

2National Nuclear Laboratory, Warrington, Cheshire, UK

3 Delft University of Technology, Faculty of Mechanical, Maritime and Materials Engineering, Mekelweg 2, 2628 CD Delft, The Netherlands

4 Deltares, P.O. Box 177, 2600 MH Delft, The Netherlands

5TUV NEL Ltd, East Kilbride, Glasgow, G75 0QF, UK


ABSTRACT


The measurement of multiphase flows is important to a range of industries. In the petrochemical sector the successful adoption of multiphase flowmeters demands a wider set of data than has previously been available. Knowledge of particular flow regimes need to be known, measured and the appropriate data incorporated into these flowmeters. This paper demonstrates how tomographic methods can be used to advance this agenda based on two recent case studies pertaining to a 3- phase and a high velocity 2-phase flows.


By using dual capacitance and resistance electrical tomography (m3000, ITS plc, Manchester) an industrial case study (National Engineering Laboratory, UK) demonstrated how such methods can be used to observe and quantify 3-phase flowing systems which fluctuate between oil continuous and water continuous liquids.


For high velocity flows advance instrumentation is needed. An ultra high speed electrical tomography system (z8000, ITS plc) was used in a 2-phase flow loop at Delft University of Technology. In this case it is shown that flow regimes and patterns can be verified providing quantitative evaluation of the point velocities based on voxel cross-correlation methods.


The studies demonstrate the versatility of electrical tomographic imaging and its use as an aide to process flow visualisation and quantitative measurement with particular reference to the optimisation of multiphase flow meters.


Keywords Electrical capacitance tomography, electrical resistance tomography, hydraulic conveying, multi-modal tomography, multiphase flow, velocity mapping


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