A Portable Capacitance Probe for Detection of Interface Levels in Multi-Phase Flows - a Case Study

A.J. Jaworski, T. Dyakowski and G.A. Davies

Department of Chemical Engineering, UMIST, PO Box 88, Sackville Street, Manchester M60 1QD, England, UK.

E-mail: a.jaworski@umist.ac.uk, t.dyakowski@umist.ac.uk and g.a.davies@umist.ac.uk.

Abstract - This paper describes the design and construction of a portable probe for monitoring the dynamics of the multi-phase flows within horizontal oil-water separators and presents some preliminary results from the industrial tests of the prototype device. The detection of individual phases is based on the measurement of dielectric properties of the process media, by means of an array of capacitance sensors, which are distributed along the body of the probe. The measurements of electrical capacitance are performed using electronic circuitry, based on charge transfer principle, which was originally developed at UMIST for tomographic applications.

Keywords: multiphase flow, interface detection, oil-water separators