Pattern recognition and signal processing of ultrasonic echo signal on two-phase flow

This paper presents a novel measurement method using ultrasonic echo signals on the flow of air–water mixtures. This method has the capability of measuring an instantaneous echo intensity profile along an ultrasonic beam, so it is expected to apply to pattern recognition of two-phase flow. Additionally, this method has an advantage compared with conventional techniques because of the clump-on type. The principle of the flow pattern recognition is based on the delay time and strength of the pulse echo. In this paper, first of all, the transmission of ultrasound through solid plates, which are made of plexiglass and carbon steel, has been investigated and the effective incidence angles for these materials were found. Then, echo signals reflected off a boundary between water and air in a vertical pipe, having a diameter of 50 mm, were obtained using an ultrasound system, and the effects estimated of a two-phase pattern, from bubbly to slug flow, on the signals. In addition, water flows down the inner surface of a pipe as annular flow, and the echo signals then also investigated.     

基于经验模态分解和BP神经网络的油气两相流流型辨识

基于经验模态分解（empidcal mode decomposition，EMD）BP神经网络，提出了油气两相流流型辨识的新方法。应用EMD将差压信号分解成不同频率尺度上的单组分之和，并提取组分的归一化能量作为流型辨识特征量。BP神经网络以这些能量特征量为输入对油气两相流不同流型（包括泡状流、塞状流、层状流、弹状流和环状流）进行分类。实验结果表明，本文提出的流型辨识方法是有效的，其中泡状流、塞状流、层状流、弹状流和环状流的辨识精度分别为100％、89．4％,93．3％、96.3％和96.9％。     

Separated two-phase flow regime parameter measurement by a high speed ultrasonic pulse-echo system

In this work, a high speed ultrasonic multitransducer pulse-echo system using a four transducer method was used for the dynamic characterization of gas-liquid two-phase separated flow regimes. The ultrasonic system consists of an ultrasonic pulse signal generator, multiplexer, 10 MHz (0.64 cm) ultrasonic transducers, and a data acquisition system. Four transducers are mounted on a horizontal 2.1 cm inner diameter circular pipe. The system uses a pulse-echo method sampled every 0.5 ms for a 1 s duration. A peak detection algorithm (the C-scan mode) is developed to extract the location of the gas-liquid interface after signal processing. Using the measured instantaneous location of the gas/liquid interface, two-phase flow interfacial parameters in separated flow regimes are determined such as liquid level and void fraction for stratified wavy and annular flow. The shape of the gas-liquid interface and, hence, the instantaneous and cross-sectional averaged void fraction is also determined. The results show that the high speed ultrasonic pulse-echo system provides accurate results for the determination of the liquid level within +/-1.5%, and the time averaged liquid level measurements performed in the present work agree within +/-10% with the theoretical models. The results also show that the time averaged void fraction measurements for a stratified smooth flow, stratified wavy flow, and annular flow qualitatively agree with the theoretical predictions.     

金属材料小缺陷超声反射信号建模及识别

为了能从含噪声金属材料超声检测信号中有效识别出微小缺陷回波,建立了金属材料超声反射信号模型并提出了基于相关系数的微小缺陷回波识别方法。对含微小缺陷金属材料超声脉冲反射信号的成分进行分析,建立了基于散射声场与高斯回波理论的优化超声回波模型。设计了超声缺陷回波位置识别方法。该方法对超声脉冲反射信号去噪后,取探头发射脉冲信号为参考信号;然后与去噪后的信号逐段求解相关系数;最后对该相关系数序列进行阈值化处理,获得缺陷回波在超声回波信号中的位置。将利用上述优化超声回波模型生成的超声反射信号及其频谱与实验获得的金属材料超声反射信号及其频谱进行了对比,结果表明:两者的时频域特征具有一致性。当将阈值设定为相关系数序列最大值的60%时,能够有效从超声背散射信号中识别出金属材料微小缺陷回波。     

Ultrasound measurement of large bubbles rising in angled slug pipe flows

This study details the problem of the ultrasonic detection of large bubbles rising rapidly in an upward gas–liquid two-phase pipe flow and proposes a new method to solve the problem. The proposed method uses two types of information, namely the echo intensity reflected by large bubbles and the Doppler frequency, which have different features in interface detection. The method using the Doppler frequency performs well in the detection of large bubbles regardless of the interface condition, whereas the method using the echo intensity has trouble in detecting an uneven interface. In contrast, the information of the echo intensity guarantees high accuracy of the interface detection even if that of the Doppler frequency has low accuracy for the detection owing to many small bubbles existing in the liquid film. Here, the two methods are combined to overcome their problems, and a validation test confirms that the results of the combined method agree well with the results of image processing. As demonstrations of the proposed method, the slug frequency, velocity, and airflow rate of large bubbles in an air-lift pump are obtained. The results confirm that the proposed method can be adopted for the high velocity of slug flow in various applications.     

Measurement of Attenuation of Ultrasonic Propagating through the Thin Layer Media with Time Delay Spectrum

The ultrasonic attenuation coefficient is one of the most important acoustic parameters to character the performance of a thin layer media, but it can not be measured due to mutual superposition of multiple reflected waves at the same interface in ultrasonic testing. Ultrasonic pulse echo and lamb wave to evaluate the thin layer media can not obtain attenuation coefficient at present. In this paper, analytical method was used to study the acoustics characteristic of thin layer media with the ultrasonic echo testing. Meanwhile, the process of ultrasonic attenuation measurement was presented. Simulation and experimental investigation is focused on a thin layer of rubber. Attenuation coefficient was introduced and evaluation mathematics model was established by the two echoes cross-correlation with and without the thin layer media based on the time delay spectrum. It involved the parameters related to the acoustic properties of the thin layer media. Through calculating the sound velocity and acoustic impedance with the evaluation model, it can deduce the relation between the attenuation coefficient and the frequency. Through analyzing the simulation results, it indicated that the attenuation coefficients were invariable with the varying of the frequency. However, the attenuation coefficients increased with the frequency increasing by ultrasonic testing the thin layer of rubber. The reason was that the attenuation factor was not taken into account during the simulation. This method overcomes shortcomings that the traditional ultrasonic testing can not evaluate the thin layer media whose thickness is less than motivation wavelength. It is a new solution to study the attenuation characteristic and on-line nondestructive evaluation in the thin layer media.     

Flow noise characterization of gas–liquid two-phase flow based on acoustic emission

Flow noise of gas–liquid two-phase flow in horizontal pipeline was detected by using the acoustic emission technique (AE); signals were processed by wavelet transform and chaotic analysis. Conclusions were drawn that stratified flow, annular flow and their transition can be divided clearly through multi-scale energy distribution of flow noise, and that dynamic characteristic of flow pattern transition from stratified flow to annular flow, which is described via correlation dimension, acts in accordance with that of annular flow. The dynamic characteristic of the transition condition has already been consistent with that of the annular flow, but due to the low gas flow rate, the energy of the hydrodynamic noise was not enough to reach the complete annular flow pattern. Results were in accordance with experimental facts. Flow noise reflects the complexity of gas–liquid two-phase flow by means of multi-scale energy distribution and chaotic features. Consequently, flow noise based on acoustic emission is a novel and promising point for researching gas–liquid two-phase flow.     

Application of ultrasonic multi-wave method for two-phase bubbly and slug flows

This paper proposes a measurement technique for two-phase bubbly and slug flows using ultrasound. In order to obtain both liquid and gas velocity distributions simultaneously, a new technique for separating liquid and gas velocity data is developed. The technique employs a unique ultrasonic transducer referred to as multi-wave transducer (TDX). The multi-wave TDX consists of two kinds of ultrasonic piezoelectric elements which have different resonant frequencies. The central element of 3 mm diameter has a basic frequency of 8 MHz and the outer element has a basic frequency of 2 MHz. The multi-wave TDX can emit the two ultrasonic frequencies independently. In our previous investigations, both elements were connected with two ultrasonic velocity profile (UVP) monitors to measure liquid and bubble velocity distributions. However, the technique was limited to the measurement of bubbly flows at low void-fraction. Furthermore, it was impossible to synchronize the instantaneous velocities of liquid and bubbles because of the facility limitation. In order to overcome these disadvantages, cross-correlation method is employed for the measurements in this study. In order to apply the technique to flow measurements, ultrasound pressure fields are measured. As a result, it is found that the TDX must be set 20 mm away from the test section. The technique is applied to measuring bubbly and slug flows. By the combination of 2 and 8 MHz ultrasonic echo signals, the echo signals are distinguished between reflected from particles and bubbles. Compared with the results of obtaining with the multi-wave method and a high-speed camera, it is confirmed that the technique can separate the information of liquid and gas phases at a sampling rate of 1000 Hz.     

基于多频带谱熵的水平气液两相流结构复杂性分析

针对传统功率谱熵只能刻画总体系统结构复杂性问题,提出既能从宏观角度又能从微观角度反映系统结构复杂性的多频带谱熵的分析方法。分析几种典型信号的多频带谱熵特征,验证多频带谱熵方法的可行性及抗干扰能力;利用环形电导传感器阵列获取动态实验测试数据,计算水平气液两相流波状流、塞状流和弹状流含水率波动的多频带谱熵值,分析3种流型结构复杂性随频带因子变化的演变规律。实验结果表明:波状流的多频带谱熵最低,弹状流多频带谱熵值最高;塞状流的多频带谱熵居于波状流与弹状流之间。3种流型在分析频率为0~8.3 Hz时,呈现近似线性变化的结构复杂性特征以及较强的流型区分度,可以作为流型识别的准则。     

Ultrasonic defect detection of a petroleum pipeline in a viscoelastic medium

During detection of the defects in the inner wall of a petroleum pipeline via an ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation method, the defect echo and the inner-wall echo often overlap. It is difficult to identify the arriving time of the defect echo. When an ultrasonic wave propagates in a viscoelastic medium, the stress relaxation and creep deformation result in a signal characterized by frequency. The wave speed and attenuation rate are dependent on the frequency; thus, the ultrasonic signal has different shapes along the wave propagation path. Sometimes the wave shape is wry. The empirical mode decomposition technology used for separating the overlapping echo signals has been presented in this paper. With such technology, the original ultrasonic signal can be decomposed and then some intrinsic mode functions (IMFs) and a residue can be obtained. Different IMFs contain different echo signals. Some useful IMFs are selected to reconstruct the ultrasonic signal. The peaks of the reconstructed ultrasonic signal envelope indicate the arriving time of the echo signals. The experimental results show that this method is effective for detection of the defects in the inner wall of a petroleum pipeline. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Salinity and flow regime independent multiphase flow measurements

For oil production fields, there is a need for downhole measurements of the gas/water/oil multiphase flow. In extreme conditions a relatively simple, robust, and non-intrusive system will be appropriate. A measurement setup that combines multiple gamma beam (MGB) and dual modality densitometry (DMD) measurements, would be able to determine the gas volume fraction (GVF) independently of the flow pattern, and monitor changes in water salinity. MGB measurements of gamma-ray transmission along multiple sections across the oil pipe will provide information on the flow pattern. Whereas the DMD principle will give information on changes in salinity from a combination of transmission and scattering gamma-radiation measurements. In this work we present the results from MGB and DMD measurements of a multiphase flow with high-speed gamma-ray tomograph measurements as reference for the flow pattern. The MGB measurements should enable us to distinguish between stratified or wavy/slug and annular or slug flow. Flow patterns with several minor components distributed evenly over the measurement cross section, like bubble flow, will be interpreted as homogeneous flow. The DMD measurements can be used to monitor salinity changes of the water component for intervals where the GVF is low and the water cut of the liquid is high. Combined with other gauges for water cut measurements, the MGB and DMD measurement setup should improve the multiphase flow measurements, and enable increased oil/gas recovery and production water monitoring.     

油气润滑气液两相环状流流动特性分析

建立油气润滑气液两相环状流的数学模型,通过Fluent仿真,研究水平管内环状流的形成机制以及油气流速对其影响趋势。结果表明:气液两相流型随气相速度的变化,从分层流向环状流和雾状流转变,其中分层流向环状流的转变是附壁效应和气相涡旋流动的结果,环状流向雾状流的转变是气相撕裂油相形成细小油滴,并均匀混合的结果;在一定范围内最短进口长度和气速成正比关系。     

Characterization of slug flows in horizontal piping by signal analysis from a capacitive probe

The slug flow is a common occurrence in gas–liquid piping flows. Usually it is an undesirable flow regime since the existence of long lumps of liquid slug moving at high speed is unfavorable to gas–liquid transportation, so that considerable effort has been devoted to study its hydrodynamic characteristics. In this work, a capacitive probe was used for dynamic measurements in the horizontal air–water slug flows, for several flow rates. The acquired signals were representative of the effective liquid layer thickness near every cross sectional area of the flow, instead of merely the holdup or void fraction in a finite volume of the flow. This was possible because probe had a thin sensing electrode that minimizes the axial length effect on the measurements. Tests were performed in a 34 mm i.d. acrylic pipe, 5 m long; in which slug flows as well as stratified-smooth and stratified-wavy flows were generated. Signal analysis techniques were applied for flow regime identification and toward characterization of these two-phase flows: Power Spectrum Density (PSD) from Fourier Transform and Probability Density Function (PDF) from Statistical Analysis. Therefore, PSD and PDF graphs were taken as signatures of each flow under test and a correlation was calculated for each PSD and PDF set of data, which showed to be a robust parameter for correct flow regime identification.     

Three-dimensional visualisation of gas-water two-phase flow based on bubble mapping method and size projection algorithm

Electrical impedance tomography (EIT) has been successfully applied on gas-water flow applications, but it is incapable to identify small bubbles or the sharp gas-water interface of a large bubble due to its relatively low spatial resolution. A new visualisation approach, bubble mapping method (BM3D), offers a good 3D visualisation of bubble size and distribution. However, the empirical thresholding value method used in BM3D might meet a challenging from various flow setups and conditions in practice. Recently, the size projection algorithm (SPA) was proposed to determine the closest thresholding value for each frame of tomogram by minimising projection error. In this paper, the performances of BM3D and SPA methods are individually analysed and evaluated. Then a new method based on the combination of BM3D and SPA methods is reported to achieve better visualisation of gas-water flow, where the SPA is employed to determine the optimised thresholding values for BM3D method. Experiments are conducted to evaluate the proposed combination method for typical gas-water pipeline flow regimes, including horizontal stratified, bubble, plug, slug, annular flow regimes and vertical bubble, slug, annular flow regimes. The results are compared with the BM3D method, colour mapping method, and high-speed camera video recorded from a transparent chamber. A brief discussion on the effects of reconstruction algorithms and thresholding value for horizontal and vertical flows visualisation is also given.     

Identification of gas-liquid flow regimes using a non-intrusive Doppler ultrasonic sensor and virtual flow regime maps

The accurate prediction of flow regimes is vital for the analysis of behaviour and operation of gas/liquid two-phase systems in industrial processes. This paper investigates the feasibility of a non-radioactive and non-intrusive method for the objective identification of two-phase gas/liquid flow regimes using a Doppler ultrasonic sensor and machine learning approaches. The experimental data is acquired from a 16.2-m long S-shaped riser, connected to a 40-m horizontal pipe with an internal diameter of 50.4 mm. The tests cover the bubbly, slug, churn and annular flow regimes. The power spectral density (PSD) method is applied to the flow modulated ultrasound signals in order to extract frequency-domain features of the two-phase flow. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is then used to reduce the dimensionality of the data so as to enable visualisation in the form of a virtual flow regime map. Finally, a support vector machine (SVM) is deployed to develop an objective classifier in the reduced space. The classifier attained 85.7% accuracy on training samples and 84.6% accuracy on test samples. Our approach has shown the success of the ultrasound sensor, PCA-SVM, and virtual flow regime maps for objective two-phase flow regime classification on pipeline-riser systems, which is beneficial to operators in industrial practice. The use of a non-radioactive and non-intrusive sensor also makes it more favorable than other existing techniques.     

Optical method for flow patterns discrimination,slug and pig detection in horizontal gas liquid pipe

An optical method including infrared ray and laser was developed to discriminate flow pattern, and detect liquid slug and pig in horizontal gas–liquid pipe. Based on the principle that infrared ray attenuates differently during penetrating gas and liquid, the infrared ray method was developed to discriminate flow pattern and detect liquid slug. In experiment, infrared ray was emitted on one side of the transparent pipe, and detected on the other side. Simultaneously, a signal of output voltage that is proportional to the intensity of infrared ray detected was generated and recorded. A series of experiments in horizontal air/water loop were carried out to generate bubble, stratified smooth, wavy and intermittent flow, and the output voltages under the four flow patterns were analyzed. The flow patterns can be discriminated by characteristics of output voltage. Meanwhile, the velocity and frequency of liquid slug were measured by this method, and the results were consistent with that calculated by formulas. However, infrared ray is easily affected by interface between gas and liquid, a laser method was explored to detect pig. The laser method is similar to infrared ray, a laser beam was emitted and detected and then a signal of output voltage was recorded. The results from pigging experiments show that the laser method could correctly detect the passing of a pig. The combined use of infrared ray and laser method could rightly detect pig and pigging slug during pigging operation.     

磁致伸缩仪超声空化流的三维非定常数值模拟

采用Singhal完全空化模型和SST k-ω湍流模型结合动网格技术对磁致伸缩仪超声空化流进行三维非定常数值模拟。计算结果表明,由于变幅杆高频振动,在靠近试样表面附近局部流场的压力和空泡体积组分变化具有周期性,压力波动的最低值可达到汽化压力,该局部流场可发生空化。由于空化,试样表面压力波动具有脉冲特征。压力和空泡体积组分在试样表面近似呈环形分布。在同一环形区域内,压力和空泡体积组分存在无规律断续脉动。试样表面中心区域空泡经历两次振荡后溃灭,产生强烈脉冲压力,最大脉冲压力可达约14MPa。脉冲压力在试样表面按间隔环形区域分布,且随试样振动在相邻环形区域上交替出现。在磁致伸缩仪超声空化流场中,试件表面可近似多个声波发生源,各声波传播时相互叠加和干扰。在声波传播的过程中压力衰减很快,只是在距试样表面约20mm内,压力有明显波动。     

界面因素对机械结合面超声传播的影响

利用超声脉冲回波法可以测量机械结合面间的压力分布，但是其测量精度受界面接触条件的影响，如压力加载历史、表面粗糙度、接触介质等。根据超声在接触界面的传播机制，分析得到接触界面回波能量系数与界面接触压力之间的关系模型；搭建室内超声检测系统，加工不同粗糙度的接触表面，准备不同的润滑介质，对不同接触条件的试件进行压力加载试验，得到结合面回波能量系数随压力变化的曲线。结果表明：首次加载过程所得曲线明显区别于后几次加载，随循环次数的增加，所得曲线逐渐趋于重合；相同接触压力下，接触表面粗糙度越大，回波能量系数越大；相同接触压力下，接触介质的物质属性不同以及与不同粗糙度的表面相互作用时，回波能量系数有所不同。研究表明，载荷加载历史、接触表面形貌及接触介质都是影响超声在接触界面传播的主要因素，研究结果对结合面接触应力分布的准确测量具有参考价值。     

The fundamentals of the theory of spatiotemporal signal processing as applied to problems of ultrasonic flaw detection of articles from complexly structured materials

The basic propositions of spatiotemporal signal processing as applied to the problems of ultrasonic testing of complex-structure articles with a high attenuation of acoustic signals are considered. Different algorithms of extracting informational echo signals from white and structural noise during multichannel spatiotemporal signal processing are studied.     

FPGA-based High-precision Measurement Algorithm for the Ultrasonic Echo Time of Flight

Based on the evaluation of advantages and disadvantages of high-precision digital time interval measuring algorithms, and combined with the principle of the typical time-difference ultrasonic flow measurement,the requirements far the measurement of echo time of flight put forward by the ultrasonic flow measurement are an-alyzed.A new high-precision time interval measurement algorithm is presented, which combines the pulse counting method with the phase delay interpolation. The pulse counting method is used to ensure a large dynamic measuring range, and a double-edge triggering counter is designed to improve the accuracy and reduce the counting quantiza-tion error.The phase delay interpolation is used to reduce the quanti-zation error of pulse counting for further improving the time measure-ment resolution.Test data show that the system for the measurement of the ultrasonic echo time of flight based on this algorithm and im-plemented on an Field Programmable Gate Array(FPGA) needs a rel-atively short time for measurement,and has a measurement error of less than 105 ps.