A Novel Method for Determining the Void Fraction in Gas-Liquid Multi-Phase Systems Using a Dynamic Conductivity Probe

Conventional conductivity methods for measuring the void fraction in gas-liquid multiphase systems are typically affected by accuracy problems due to the presence of fluid flow and salinity.This study presents a novel approach for determining the void fraction based on a reciprocating dynamic conductivity probe used to measure the liquid film thickness under forced annular-flow conditions.The measurement system comprises a cyclone,a conductivity probe,a probe reciprocating device,and a data acquisition and processing system.This method ensures that the flow pattern is adjusted to a forced annular flow,thereby minimizing the influence of complex and variable gas-liquid flow patterns on the measurement results;Moreover,it determines the liquid film thickness solely according to circuit connectivity rather than specific conductivity values,thereby mitigating the impact of salinity.The reliability of the measurement system is demonstrated through laboratory experiments.The experimental results indicate that,in a range of gas phase superficial velocities 5–20 m/s and liquid phase superficial velocities 0.079–0.48 m/s,the maximum measurement deviation for the void fraction is 4.23%.

Void Fraction Distributions in Cold-gassed and Hot-sparged Three Phase Stirred Tanks with Multi-impeller

Vertical distributions of void fraction in gas-liquid and gas-liquid-solid stirred tanks have been measured in a fully baffled dished base vessel of 0.48 m diameter, using a conductivity probe. The impeller configuration （a hollow half elliptical blade dispersing turbine below two up-pumping wide blade hydrofoils, identified as HEDT＋2WHu） recommended in previous work has been used in this work. The operating temperatures were 24℃ and 81℃, identified as cold and hot respectively. The effects of superficial gas velocity, agitator speed and the corresponding power input on the local void fraction in two-phase systems are .investigated and discussed. Results show thatth-e increasing of agitator speed or gas flow rate leads to an increase in local-void fraction at the majority of measurement points in both cold and hot systems. However, the unifo,rmity of gas dispersion does not always in crease as the raising of agitator speed and power input. In either cold or hot sparged conditions, the two- and three-phase systems.have similar vertical profiles for void fraction, with maxima in similar locations; however, the void fractions are significantly lower in hot sparging than with cold. In cold operation the presence of particles leads to a lower void fraction at most points, although the local void fractions increase a little with the addition of solid particles at high temperature, in good agreement with the global gas holdup results, and the possible reasons are discussed in this paper. This work can give a better understanding of the differences between cold-gassed and hot-sparged three phase＇stirred tanks.

Investigation of oil-air two-phase mass flow rate measurement using Venturi and void fraction sensor

Oil-air two-phase flow measurement was investigated with a Venturi and void fraction meters in this work. This paper proposes a new flow rate measurement correlation in which the effect of the velocity ratio between gas and liquid was considered. With the pressure drop across the Venturi and the void fraction that was measured by electrical capacitance tomography apparatus, both mixture flow rate and oil flow rate could be obtained by the correlation. Experiments included bubble-, slug-, wave and annular flow with the void fraction ranging from 15% to 83%, the oil flow rate ranging from 0.97 kg/s to 1.78 kg/s, the gas flow rate ranging up to 0.018 kg/s and quality ranging nearly up to 2.0%. The root-mean-square errors of mixture mass flow rate and that of oil mass flow rate were less than 5%. Furthermore, coefficients of the correlation were modified based on flow regimes, with the results showing reduced root-mean-square errors.

Void Fraction Measurement in Oil-Gas Transportation Pipeline Using an Improved Electrical Capacitance Tomography System

To measure the void fraction online in oil-gas pipeline, an improved electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) system has been designed. The capacitance sensor with new structure has twelve internal electrodes and overcomes the influence of the pipe wall. The data collection system is improved by using high performance IC (integrated circuit). Static tests of bubble flow, stratified flow and annular flow regime are carried out. Measurements are taken on bubble flow, stratified flow and slug flow. Results show that the new ECT system performs well on void fraction measurement of bubble flow and stratified flow, but the error of measurement for slug flow is more than 10%.

An Investigation on the Void Fraction for upward Gas-Liquid Slug Flow in Vertical Pipe

In order to investigate the influence of the entrance effect on the spatial distribution of phases, the experiments on gas-liquid two-phase slug flow in a vertical pipe of 0.03m ID were carried out by using optical probes and an EKTAPRO 1000 high speed motion analyzer. It demonstrates that the radial profile of slug flow void fraction is parabolic. Influenced by the falling liquid film, the radial profile curve of liquid slug void fraction in the wake region is also parabolic. Since fully turbulent velocity distribution is built up in the developed region,the void fraction profile in this region is the saddle type. At given superficial liquid velocity, the liquid slug void fraction increases with gas velocity. The radial profiles of liquid slug void fraction at different axial locations are all saddle curves, but void fraction is obviously high around the centerline in the entrance region. The nearer the measuring station is from the entrance, the farther the peak location is away from the wall.

Void fraction measurement and calculation model of vertical upward co-current air-water slug flow

The focus of this paper is on the measurement and calculation model of void fraction for the vertical upward co-current air-water slug flow in a circular tube of 15 mm inner diameter. High-speed photography and optical probes were utilized, with water superficial velocity ranging from 0.089 to 0.65 m·s^(-1)and gas superficial velocity ranging from 0.049 to 0.65 m·s^(-1). A new void fraction model based on the local parameters was proposed, disposing the slug flow as a combination of Taylor bubbles and liquid slugs. In the Taylor bubble region, correction factors of liquid film thickness Cδand nose shape CZ*were proposed to calculate aTB. In the liquid slug region, the radial void fraction distribution profiles were obtained to calculate aLS, by employing the image processing technique based on supervised machine learning. Results showed that the void fraction proportion in Taylor bubbles occupied crucial contribution to the overall void fraction. Multiple types of void fraction predictive correlations were assessed using the present data. The performance of the Schmidt model was optimal, while some models for slug flow performed not outstanding. Additionally, a predictive correlation was correlated between the central local void fraction and the cross-sectional averaged void fraction, as a straightforward form of the void fraction calculation model. The predictive correlation showed a good agreement with the present experimental data, as well as the data of Olerni et al., indicating that the new model was effective and applicable under the slug flow conditions.

An Experimental Study on the Void Fraction for Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Flows in a Horizontal Pipe

The flow patterns and the void fraction related to a gas-liquid two-phase flow in a small channel are experimentally studied.The test channel is a transparent quartz glass circular channel with an inner diameter of 6.68 mm.The working fluids are air and water and their superficial velocities range from 0.014 to 8.127 m/s and from 0.0238 to 0.556 m/s,respectively.The void fraction is determined using the flow pattern images captured by a high-speed camera,while quick closing valves are used for verification.Four flow patterns are analyzed in experiments:slug flow,bubbly flow,annular flow and stratified flow.For intermittent flows(bubbly flow and slug flow),the cross-sectional void fraction is in a borderline condition while its probability distribution function(PDF)image displays a bimodal structure.For continuous flows(annular flow and stratified flow)the cross-sectional void fraction behaves as a fluctuating continuous curve while the(PDF)image displays a single peak structure.The volumetric void fraction data are also compared with available predictive formulas,and the results show that the agreement is very good.An effort is also provided to improve the so-called Gregory and Scott model using the available data.

Experimental Acoustic Determination of the Void Fraction in Two-Phase Flow in Horizontal Pipelines

In multi-phase flows, the phases can flow and arranged in different spatial configurations in the pipe, which called flow patterns. This type of flow is found in the oil, chemical and nuclear industries. For example, in the production and transport of oil and gas, the identification of the flow patterns are essential for answering those questions which are related to the economic return of the field, such as, measuring the volumetric flow, determining the pressure drop along the flow lines, production management and supervision. In offshore production, these factors are very important. This paper presents a new method for measuring the void fraction in horizontal pipelines, taking the air as gas in water-air two-phase flow. Through acoustic analysis of the frequency response of the pipe, the method gets the parameters to changes in runoff regime, in an experimental arrangement constructed on a small scale. The main advantages are the non-intrusive characteristic and easy to implement. The paper is composed of a qualitative experimental evaluation and transducers （microphone） which are used to analyze variations in the response accompanying variations in void and flow pattern changes. Changes are imposed and controlled by a two-phase flow experimental simulation rig, including a measurement cell constituted of an external casing that can isolate the measurement from the environmental background noise fitted with acoustic pressure transducers radially arranged, and the impact of a monitored excitation mechanism. The signals which captured by the microphones are processed and analyzed by checking their frequency contents changes according to the amount of air in the mixture.

Gamma-ray attenuation technique for measuring void fraction in horizontal gas-liquid two-phase flow

The measurement of void fraction is of importance to the oil industry and chemical industry. In this article, the principle and mathematical method of determining the void fraction of horizontal gas-liquid flow by using a sin- gle-energy γ-ray system is described. The γ-ray source is the radioactive isotope of 241Am with γ-ray energy of 59.5 keV. The time-averaged value of the void fraction in a 50.0-mm i.d. transparent horizontal pipeline is measured under various combinations of the liquid flow and gas flow. It is found that increasing the gas flow rate at a fixed liquid flow rate would increase the void fraction. Test data are compared with the predictions of the correlations and a good agreement is found. The result shows that the designed γ-ray system can be used for measuring the void fraction in a horizontal gas-liquid two-phase flow with high accuracy.

Distribution of void fraction for gas-liquid slug flow in aninclined pipe

In order to investigate the effect of inclination angle on the spatial distribution of phases, experiments on gas-liquid two-phase slug flow in an inclined pipe were carried out by using the optical probe and an EKTAPRO 1000 high speed motion analyzer. It has been demonstrated that the inclination angle and the mixture velocity are important parameters to influence the distribution of void fraction for upward slug flow in the inclined pipe. At high mixture velocity, the gas phase profile is axial symmetry in the cross-section of the pipe. This is similar to that for vertical slug flow. In contrast, most of the gas phase is located near the upper pipe wall at low mixture velocity. By measuring the axial variation of void fraction along the liquid slug, it can be concluded that there is a high void fraction wake region with length of 3～4D in the front of liquid slug. In the fully developed zone of liquid slug, the peak value of the void fraction is near the upper wall.

Influences of physical properties of two-phase mixture on void fraction in an annular vessel

To keep the void fraction of two-phase hydrogen in the moderator cell of the cold neutron source (CNS)of China Advanced Research Reactor (CARR) to a specified range, an annular vessel with the same size as the actual moderator cell was used as test section. Deionized water and alcohol, sucrose, and sodium chloride solutions with different concentrations were used as working fluid to find out influences of physical properties, such as density, viscosity and surface tension, of the two-phase mixture on void fraction. The tests proved that the ratio of surface tension to density of liquid phase has great influence on void fraction: the larger the ratio, the smaller the void fraction.Since the ratio of surface tension to density of Freon 113 is lower than that of liquid hydrogen, Freon 113 can be used as a working fluid to study the void fraction in the two-phase hydrogen thermosiphon loop in the CNS of CARR and the results will be conservative.

A MINI－CAPACITANCE PROBE FOR MEASURING THE LOCAL VOID FRACTION IN GAS－SOLID FLUIDIZED BEDS

A new mini-capacitance probe for measuring the local void frac-tion in gas-solid fluidized beds is developed in this paper. The measurementprincipleis analyzed. The structure of the probe , the spatial resolving powerand the influences of various paramete

A unified fractional flow framework for predicting the liquid holdup in two-phase pipe flows

Two-phase pipe flow occurs frequently in oil&gas industry,nuclear power plants,and CCUS.Reliable calculations of gas void fraction(or liquid holdup)play a central role in two-phase pipe flow models.In this paper we apply the fractional flow theory to multiphase flow in pipes and present a unified modeling framework for predicting the fluid phase volume fractions over a broad range of pipe flow conditions.Compared to existing methods and correlations,this new framework provides a simple,approximate,and efficient way to estimate the phase volume fraction in two-phase pipe flow without invoking flow patterns.Notably,existing correlations for estimating phase volume fraction can be transformed and expressed under this modeling framework.Different fractional flow models are applicable to different flow conditions,and they demonstrate good agreement against experimental data within 5%errors when compared with an experimental database comprising of 2754 data groups from 14literature sources,covering various pipe geometries,flow patterns,fluid properties and flow inclinations.The gas void fraction predicted by the framework developed in this work can be used as inputs to reliably model the hydraulic and thermal behaviors of two-phase pipe flows.

THE VOID FRACTION DISTRIBUTION IN TWO-DIMENSIONAL GAS-LIQUID TWO PHASE FLOW USING IMAGE PROCESS METHOD

An image processing method for measuring the instantaneous two-dimensional （2D） local void fraction at high bubble number density was proposed. It was based on computing a correlation between the locally averaged brightness of the bubble plume images and the real void fraction. The method was tested using the 2D distribution of local void fraction from visualized image, where a correlation between the locally averaged brightness and the projection void fraction was derived by introducing an ideal of overlapping probability of the bubble-images under various conditions. This research was used to study the behavior of the bubbly flows with aspect ratio of 1.0,1.5, and 2.0. The present method was applied to the instantaneous measurement. The void fraction for bubble plumes of three different aspect ratios with three different bubble generating flow rates were measured for the clarification of the effect of the bubble on the behavior of the bubbly flows. Dependency of the void fraction on the gas flow rate was measured and compared to other results from the literature. In the range of our experiments, it was observed that not only does an aspect ratio of the tank affect the structure of the plume, but also the gas flow rate in the tank affects the structure of the plume.

A Model on the Void Fraction in Liquid Slugs for Vertical Slug Flow

Aim To develop a hydrodynamic model on the void fraction in liquid slugs for gas liquid slug flow in vertical tubes. Methods Developing the model by considering the gas exchange between the Taylor bubble and the following liquid slug. Results Some experimental data are obtained to check the model. In comparison with previous published results, the predictions from this model are better and in good agreement with the experimental data. The error is within ±20%. Conclusion The proposed model can correctly predict the void fraction in liquid slugs for gas liquid two phase slug flow in vertical tubes.

Void fraction measurement of bubble and slug flow in a small channel using the multivision technique

Using the multivision technique, a new void fraction measurement method was developed for bubble and slug flow in a small channel. The multivision system was developed to obtain images of the two-phase flow in two perpendicular directions. The obtained images were processed--using image segmentation, image subtraction, Canny edge detection, binarization, and hole filling-to extract the phase boundaries and information about the bubble or slug parameters, With the extracted information, a new void fraction measurement model was developed and used to determine the void fraction of the two-phase flow. The proposed method was validated experimentally in horizontal and vertical channels with different inner diameters of 2.1, 2.9, and 4.0 mm, The proposed method of measuring the void fraction has better performance than the methods that use images acquired in only one direction, with a maximum absolute difference between the measured and reference values of less than 6%.

Void fraction for random loose packing of the cylindrical particles considering filling rate,material and shape

Particle packing is widely applied in organic pollutant adsorption,catalytic reaction.biomass combustion,nuclear cooling,and other scenarios.Due to the complexity of the shape,the studies on the void fraction of the cylindrical particles are not as thorough as the spherical particles.This study investigated the influence of the flling rate,material properties and sphericity on the void fraction of cylinders through experiments and simulation.DEM(discrete element method)was validated by the internal structures of the packing obtained by CT(computed tomography).Based on the logarithmic correlation between the void fraction and flling rate,an ingenious framework for predicting the void fraction of cylindrical particles was presented with two intermediate coefficients.By correlating the coefficients with the material property and sphericity,a novel void-fraction prediction model was established with R-squared of 0.996.The mechanism of void fraction under random loose packing for cylinders was eventually found in this study.

Numerical Study of Void Fraction Distribution Propagation in Gas-Liquid Two-Phase Flow

A dynamic propagation model was developed for waves in two-phase flows by assuming that continuity waves and dynamic waves interact nonlinearly for certain flow conditions. The drift-flux model is solved with the one-dimensional continuity equation for gas-liquid two-phase flows as an initial-boundary value problem solved using the characteristic-curve method. The numerical results give the void fraction dis- tribution propagation in a gas-liquid two-phase flow which shows how the flow pattern transition occurs. The numerical simulations of different flow patterns show that the void fraction distribution propagation is deter- mined by the characteristics of the drift-flux between the liquid and gas flows and the void fraction range. Flow pattern transitions begin around a void fraction of 0.27 and end around 0.58. Flow pattern transitions do not occur for very high void concentrations.

水下抛石电阻率特性试验研究

研究旨在利用电阻率技术解决水下抛石坝(隐蔽性工程)隐患探测和质量评价等关键问题。采用四电极法分析了水下抛石在不同供电电压和空隙率条件下的电阻率特性,并建立了电阻率与水下抛石空隙率的经验公式。结果表明:水下抛石电阻率随供电电压(10~60 V)升高呈先衰减后逐渐趋于稳定的变化特征,且供电电压高于30 V时电阻率衰减程度显著降低;水下抛石电阻率随空隙率的增加逐渐减小并趋于稳定(两者间的关系可用递减型幂函数表征),且不同供电电压下电阻率随空隙率的变化规律与此类似;分别选用幂函数、指数函数及对数函数拟合电阻率与空隙率关系,发现幂函数拟合误差最小,考虑供电电压影响最终建立了水下抛石电阻率与空隙率的经验公式;进一步通过水下抛石坝模型试验验证了经验公式的可靠性。该经验公式可有效描述水下抛石分布的密实程度,从而快速识别水下抛石坝内部隐患。

Effect of perforation density distribution on production of perforated horizontal wellbore

To address the issue of horizontal well production affected by the distribution of perforation density in the wellbore,a numerical model for simulating two-phase flow in a horizontal well is established under two perforation density distribution conditions(i.e.increasing the perforation density at inlet and outlet sections respectively).The simulation results are compared with experimental results to verify the reliability of the numerical simulation method.The behaviors of the total pressure drop,superficial velocity of air-water two-phase flow,void fraction,liquid film thickness,air production and liquid production that occur with various flow patterns are investigated under two perforation density distribution conditions based on the numerical model.The total pressure drop,superficial velocity of the mixture and void fraction increase with the air flow rate when the water flow rate is constant.The liquid film thickness decreases when the air flow rate increases.The liquid and air productions increase when the perforation density increases at the inlet section compared with increasing the perforation density at the outlet section of the perforated horizontal wellbore.It is noted that the air production increases with the air flow rate.Liquid production increases with the bubble flow and begins to decrease at the transition point of the slug-stratified flow,then increases through the stratified wave flow.The normalized liquid flux is higher when the perforation density increases at the inlet section,and increases with the radial air flow rate.