Three-Phase Flow Measurement in the Offshore Oil Industry Is There a Place for Process Tomography?

Richard Thorn*, Geir Anton Johansen**, Erling A Hammer***

* School of Engineering, University of Derby, DE22 1GB, UK, r.thorn@derby.ac.uk

** Department of Physics, University of Bergen, N-5007, Norway, geir.johansen@fi.uib.no

*** Department of Physics, University of Bergen, N-5007, Norway, erling.hammer@fi.uib.no

Abstract - The problem of how to meter oil/water/gas mixtures is still a significant one in the oil industry. Considerable research has been conducted into the development of a three-phase flowmeter suitable for use in an offshore environment, and a number of commercial instruments are now available. This paper discusses why three phase flow measurement is important, the principal strategies which may be used to meter three-phase flow, and the way in which tomographic imaging techniques can applied to the problem of three-phase flow measurement.

Keywords - multiphase flow, flow measurement, process instrumentation