3rd World Congress on Industrial Process Tomography
Multiphase Flow Regime Identification by Multibeam Gamma-ray Densitometry – Experimental Results
S A Tjugum1,2, G A Johansen1 and O A Iversen1
1 Department of Physics; University of Bergen, Allégaten 55, N-5007 Bergen, Norway, stein-arild.tjugum@fi.uib.no
ABSTRACT
This paper presents experimental work on multibeam gamma-ray measurements on multiphase (oil/water/gas) pipe flow. Measurements are performed over the pipe cross-section, and the measurement geometries involve one source and several collimated detectors. Previous theoretical studies have shown that flow regime information can be obtained with as few as two detectors (Tjugum and Johansen 2001). The goal is to be able to identify the flow regime from these types of measurements and to obtain flow regime independent GVF (gas volume fraction) measurements. This information could also be utilized in other types of measurements in a multiphase flow-meter. In a downhole flow-meter flow conditioning is difficult, and flow regime information is of particular importance. The paper includes experimental results from different multibeam measurement geometries for 2” (50.8 mm) and 3” (76.2 mm) pipe diameters. The study has also focused on how to
implement the measurement principle in a compact design. The low-energy radiation source 241Am
has been used in the measurements
Keywords Pipe flow, gamma-ray densitometry, gas volume fraction, flow regime
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