A flow rate measurement method for horizontal oil-gas-water three-phase flows based on Venturi meter,blind tee,and gamma-ray attenuation

Online horizontal oil-gas-water three-phase flow rate monitoring is essential for reliable operations during industrial production. A flow rate measurement method is developed in horizontal oil-gas-water three-phase flows by combining a blind tee, a Venturi meter, and a gamma-ray densitometer. The blind tee is installed at the test section entrance to homogenize the mixture by transforming the horizontal flow to a vertical upward flow. The Venturi meter is used for the total flow rate measurement. The dual-energy gamma-ray densitometer is used for phase holdup measurement. In the present method, blind-tee mixing effects and oil-water mixture slip behavior is essential, which were experimentally analyzed in this work. The phase inversion was found in the oil-water mixture with the increasing of the oil volume fraction. Besides, the addition of the gas reduces the oil-water slip ratio. For the range of 0–35% and 65–100% oil fraction in the oil-water liquid, the oil-water mixture can be well treated as a pseudo homogenous liquid with a slip ratio of 0.9–1.1. A three-phase flow rate model is then established for these conditions. The method was validated by horizontal oil-gas-water three-phase flows with average relative errors of 3.2% for the total flow rates, 4.3% for the gas flow rates, 11.5% for the oil flow rates, and 7.8% for the water flow rates.     

Application of small size cavitating venturi as flow controller and flow meter

The cavitating venturi is using to provide constant mass flow rate of liquid which is passing through a passage, independent of downstream pressure changes. The flow rate is a function of the upstream pressure, the throat area, the density and saturation pressure of the liquid. An experimental setup with capability of supplying water flow rate and constant upstream pressure was designed and manufactured. Three cavitating venturis with throat diameter of 5, 2.5, and 1 mm were designed and built to investigate the effect of venturi size on its mass flow rate. Three different sets of experiments were conducted to investigate the performance of the venturis. In the experiments, the mass flow rates were examined under different downstream and upstream pressure conditions and time varying downstream pressure. The results show for the ratio of downstream pressure to upstream pressure less than 0.8, the mass flow rate is constant and independent of the downstream pressure. Whenever the pressure ratio exceeds 0.8, the venturi acts like an orifice. This pressure ratio has been predicted analytically to highlight the affecting parameters, mainly the geometry of the venturi and viscous losses. It is found that the venturi size has no effect on its expecting function to keep mass flow rate constant. Also, it is shown that by applying a discharge coefficient and using only upstream pressure, the cavitating venturi can be used as a flowmeter with a high degree of accuracy in a wide range of mass flow rate.     

Characterization of flow homogeneity downstream of a slotted orifice plate in a two-phase flow using electrical resistance tomography

Two-phase flows are complex and unpredictable in nature, commonly encountered in a majority of fluid transport systems. The accurate measurement of two-phase flow is critical for a wide range of applications from wet stream to multiphase flows. There are different methods to meter two-phase flow in various industries. One approach is to produce a flow meter that does not require the individual flow components to be separated and measured separately. This goal can be met if a homogenized mixture is produced which can be measured by a standard single phase flow meter. The slotted orifice plate was invented as a flow meter for single phase flows, it is independent upon upstream flow conditions. Slotted orifice plate flow meter's utilization in two-phase flow revealed that it is highly capable of working as a flow conditioner transforming most of the multiphase flow regimes into a fairly uniform mixture. This study measures how the relative homogeneity of an air/water mixture varies downstream of the slotted plate in a horizontal pipe for various upstream conditions including elongated bubble and slug flow regimes using electrical resistance tomography (ERT). According to this study, the optimal location with a maximum homogeneity was determined to be between 1.5 and 2.5 pipe diameters downstream of the slotted orifice plate. This indicates that placing a slotted orifice plate at the obtained distance upstream of another flow meter such as a venturi coupled with a density measuring device like a radiation based densitometer or an electrical impedance device will help in obtaining accurate multiphase flow rate measurement.     

Simulation and experimental study of phase segregation in helical pipes: A new method for flow conditioning

The aim of the present study is to contribute some knowledge of phase separation phenomena of gas–liquid turbulent flow in curved pipe and provide a basis for the development of an in-line gas–liquid separator and flow pattern conditioning device. A systematic study of gas–liquid three-phase flow in 3D helical pipes was numerically performed. Gas phase distribution in the flow through the helical pipe was analyzed for various flow parameters conditions and different pipe geometries. Experimental qualitative results show that a helical pipe can, successfully, be used to condition a bubble flow into a stratified (stratified wavy flow). The main idea is to put it just upstream of sensors that are flow regime dependent; ensuring that the sensor, once calibrated to work in this flow pattern, suffers no reduction in its performance and, consequently, avoid additional sources of error.     

A CFD study of wet gas metering over-reading model under high pressure

The venturi flow meter is increasingly being preferred in multiphase flow measurement because of its shorter upstream and downstream straight sections, less influenced by the flow pattern and relatively small pressure loss. However, when the venturi is used for wet gas measurement, the over-reading phenomenon occurs due to the presence of a small amount of liquid. Many scholars have established over-reading models to correct the measured values of wet gas. Regrettably, the applicability of these over-reading models under actual high pressure operating conditions has not been verified. Therefore, this review focuses on numerical simulation of the flow of wet gas in the venturi tube under high pressure conditions (11MPa/13MPa/15 MPa). The discrete phase model (DPM) and the standard k-ε model was employed in this review. The simulations results reveals the flow characteristics of wet gas in venturi tube, which includes the flow field distributions, droplet concentration distributions and wall pressure profile distributions, and indicates that the over-reading values increases with the increase of Lockhart-Martinelli parameters and gas volume flow rate, but decreases with the increase of pressure. Moreover, the ISO model has the best performance under high pressure conditions.     

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.     

Application of variable area cavitating venturi as a dynamic flow controller

The variable area cavitating venturi is an effective means to throttle the mass flow rate of liquid. The mass flow rate is a function of the upstream pressure, the pintle stroke, the density and saturation pressure of the liquid, independent of the downstream pressure. In this paper, a variable area cavitating venturi is designed and four different sets of experiments are conducted to investigate the performance of the variable area cavitating venturi. In these experiments, the mass flow rates are examined under different pintle positions, upstream pressures, downstream pressures and dynamic motions of the pintle. The experimental results indicate that the mass flow rate is independent of the downstream pressure when the ratio of the downstream pressure to upstream pressure is less than 0.8. The mass flow rate is almost linearly dependent on the pintle stroke for a constant upstream pressure. The discharge coefficient is a function of the pintle stroke, whereas the upstream and downstream pressures have rare influence on the discharge coefficient. The variable area cavitating venturi can control and measure the mass flow rate dynamically by determining the pintle stroke and the upstream pressure.     

An investigation of a cavitating venturi flow control feature in a cryogenic propellant delivery system

This study details the design and performance characterization for a cryogenic cavitating venturi. This flow control system is intended for mass flow regulation of cryogenic propellants, such as liquid oxygen and liquid methane, in reaction control propulsion systems. Through in situ flow tests, the discharge coefficient for the venturi was calculated and utilized to determine the mass flow rate for specified inlet pressures of the propellants. The test results revealed that the cavitating venturi indeed performed as a flow rate control feature in both liquid water and LCH₄ flow under a steady state operating within pressure ratios below 0.69.     

Intermittent flow parameters from void fraction analysis

Two-phase horizontal intermittent flow in straight pipes is experimentally investigated. A new procedure is proposed to characterize the flow through the statistical analysis of the instantaneous cross-sectional averaged void fraction obtained by means of ring impedance probes. The algorithm, based on the statistical analysis of the void fraction records, allows the main intermittent flow parameters, such as slug frequency and length, time average void fraction, minimum and average liquid film height to be evaluated. The procedure is validated through flow visualizations, as obtained from a fast digital video camera.Experiments on air-water horizontal flows in 40 and 60 mm inner diameter pipes are performed. The operating conditions cover the 0.3–4.0 and 0.6-3.0 m/s gas and liquid superficial velocity ranges, respectively.An extensive comparison with literature data shows a general agreement with present measurement. The reliability of both the instrumentation and the signal analysis procedures allows new correlations for minimum and average liquid film height in stratified regions to be proposed. Finally proper dimensionless numbers were applied to correlate frequency data in a wide range of superficial velocity values.     

Performance model evaluation of turbine flow meter in vertical gas-liquid two-phase flows

Aiming at the need for flow measurement of gas-liquid flows in domestic gas well production, this paper proposes a measurement method based on the combination of the turbine flow meter (TFM) and a rotating electric field conductance sensor (REFCS). In experiments, the REFCS is used for the measurement of the gas holdup. To verify the applicability of the TFM models investigated in the previous study, for the modeling part, the mass, momentum and torque models are evaluated in vertical upward gas-liquid two-phase flows. In our model test, the meter factor model of TFM considers the effects of the slip ratio between the gas and liquid phases and flow patterns. In particular, the gas holdup involved in calculating the slip ratio in the model evaluation is obtained from the REFCS measurements. Model test results show the torque model has better volumetric flow rate prediction accuracy than the mass and momentum models. In the present study, the ranges of the liquid and gas phases are Q_w = 2–30 m³/d and Q_g = 1–16 m³/d, it was found that the average absolute deviation (AAD) in the predicted volume flow rate is equal to 1.23 m³/d and the average absolute percentage deviation (AAPD) is equal to 7.69%. The evaluated results presented in this paper will allow better estimates of the volumetric flow rates of gas-liquid flows based on the combined TMF and REFCS measurements during the monitoring of gas well production.     

Calibration of hydrogen Coriolis flow meters using nitrogen and air and investigation of the influence of temperature on measurement accuracy

The performance of four Coriolis flow meters designed for use in hydrogen refuelling stations was evaluated with air and nitrogen by three members of the MetroHyVe JRP consortium; NEL, METAS and CESAME EXADEBIT.A wide range of conditions were tested overall, with gas flow rates ranging from (0.05–2) kg/min and pressures ranging from (20–86) bar. The majority of tests were conducted at nominal pressures of either 20 bar or 40 bar, in order to match the density of hydrogen at 350 bar and 20 °C or 700 bar and −40 °C. For the conditions tested, pressure did not have a noticeable influence on meter performance.When the flow meters were operated at ambient temperatures and within the manufacturer's recommended flow rate ranges, errors were generally within ±1%. Errors within ±0.5% were achievable for the medium to high flow rates.The influence of temperature on meter performance was also studied, with testing under both stable and transient conditions and temperatures as low as −40 °C.When the tested flow meters were allowed sufficient time to reach thermal equilibrium with the incoming gas, temperature effects were limited. The magnitude and spread of errors increased, but errors within ±2% were achievable at moderate to high flow rates. Conversely, errors as high as 15% were observed in tests where logging began before temperatures stabilised and there was a large difference in temperature between the flow meter and the incoming gas.One of the flow meters tested with nitrogen was later installed in a hydrogen refuelling station and tested against the METAS Hydrogen Field Test Standard (HFTS). Under these conditions, errors ranged from 0.47% to 0.91%. Testing with nitrogen at the same flow rates yielded errors of −0.61% to −0.82%.     

Two-dimensional two-fluid model for air-oil wavy flow in horizontal tube

This study concerns the development of a two-dimensional two-fluid model for wavy flows in horizontal tubes. To deal with the curved walls of the liquid and gas phases and the gas-liquid interface simultaneously, the bipolar coordinate system was used. Experiments on air-oil mixture flow in horizontal tubes with diameters of 20 and 40 mm were conducted to observe wavy flow patterns accompanying the two-dimensional (2D) and Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) waves and to measure the pressure gradient under different flow conditions. Two different previous correlations for the interfacial friction factor were employed in the model for predicting the wavy flows with 2D and KH waves. Predictions of the model of the liquid film height, the average values of wall shear stresses of each phase, and the average interfacial shear stress were compared for different diameters and different superficial gas and liquid Reynolds numbers. Also presented are detailed predictions of the model for four different flow conditions, including the local values of interfacial shear stress, wall shear stress of the liquid phase, interfacial friction factor, liquid film height, and two-dimensional velocity distribution in the liquid phase at the cross-section of the tube.

     

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.     

Wet gas measurements of long-throat Venturi Tube based on forced annular flow

A wet gas dual-parameter measuring device composed of a cyclone and a long-throated Venturi tube is proposed to overcome the difficulty of measuring the liquid content of wet gases and reduce the error caused by the wet gas flow pattern. The flow pattern is transformed into an annular flow by a cyclone. In this study, the proposed device was compared with a traditional non-cyclone long-throat Venturi tube; furthermore, the pressure difference ratio W between the contraction and expansion sections of the long-throat Venturi tube was introduced as a parameter. Through numerical simulations, the relationship between W, the gas Froude number, over-reading, and liquid-gas mass flow ratio was analyzed, and a new wet gas flow measurement model was established. The reliability of the measurement model was verified through indoor experiments. The experimental results showed that the traditional wet gas measurement device had gas phase and liquid phase errors of ±4.5% and ±10%, respectively; on the other hand, the cyclone-based wet gas measurement device had gas phase and liquid phase errors of ±3% and ±8%, respectively. Thus, the performance of the wet gas measurement device with the cyclone was higher than that of the traditional wet gas measurement device.     

A study on the relationship between upstream and downstream conditions in swirling two-phase flow

Inline fluid separation is a concept, which is used in the oil and gas industry. Inline fluid separators typically have a static design and hence changing inlet conditions lead to less efficient phase separation. For introducing flow control into such a device, additional information is needed about the relationship of upstream and downstream conditions. This paper introduces a study on this relationship for gas/liquid two-phase flow. The downstream gas core development was analyzed for horizontal device installation in dependence of the inlet gas and liquid flow rates. A wire-mesh sensor was used for determining two-phase flow parameters upstream and a high-speed video camera to obtain core parameters downstream the swirling device. For higher accuracy of the calculated void fraction, a novel method for wire-mesh sensor data analysis has been implemented. Experimental results have shown that void fraction data of the wire-mesh sensor can be used to predict the downstream behavior for a majority of the investigated cases. Additionally, the upstream flow pattern has an impact on the stability of the gas core downstream which was determined by means of experimental data analysis.     

Feasibility study on the use of the Acoustic Emission technology for monitoring flow patterns in two phase flow

This paper presents an investigation into the detection of single bubble inception and burst with the Acoustic Emission (AE) technology. In addition, it presents results correlating the Gas Void Fractions in two phase gas–liquid flow with levels of AE activity. The findings demonstrate the feasibility of employing AE technology as an on-line monitoring tool for bubble detection and ascertaining flow patterns under two phase gas-liquid flow conditions.     

Simulation and experimental investigation on gas-liquid two-phase flow separation behaviors in multitube T-Junction separator

A specially designed separator for gas-liquid two-phase flow separation and measurement is proposed. The flow characteristics and working scope are studied under different gas/liquid superficial velocities and different flow patterns through FLUENT numerical simulation and experimental research. The working scope of the separator is related to both the gas and liquid superficial velocity. The separator work well under the when the gas superficial velocity ranges from 0.65 to 21 m/s, and the liquid superficial velocity ranges from 0.01 to 0.31 m/s. When the actual working condition is beyond this range, the performance is not so outstanding in case of partial slug flow and annular. Under the working range of the separator, the measurement error of gas and liquid mass flow rates is less than ±2.5%. The special structure provides a buffer space for liquid slug, which shows good shock resistance capacity under high liquid superficial velocity. The investigation offers a valuable guidance for multiphase flow rates measurement.     

Vertically installed Venturi tubes for wet-gas flow measurement: Possible improvements to ISO/TR 11583 to extend its range of applicability

Venturi tubes are commonly used for wet-gas flow measurement, and the majority of commercial wet-gas flow meters generally include a Venturi tube installed vertically with embedded secondary instrumentation. The presence of the liquid causes an increase in the measured differential pressure and results in the Venturi tube over-reading the actual amount of gas passing through the meter. Most of the research in the literature is focused on the investigation of the over-reading for horizontally oriented Venturi tubes, thus limiting the development of over-reading correlations for vertical installation. An experimental campaign was recently conducted at the TÜV SÜD National Engineering Laboratory (NEL) high-pressure wet-gas loop, where three Venturi tubes of the same nominal diameter (4”) but different throat to inlet diameter ratio (0.4, 0.6, 0.75) were tested, installed vertically after a blind tee. The results of this experimental campaign are presented in this paper and the effects of various parameters (line pressure, gas Froude number, diameter ratio) on the over-reading are briefly discussed. It is shown that the over-reading correlation included in the ISO/TR 11583:2012 and developed for horizontally oriented Venturis, is not applicable to vertically oriented Venturis. However, if modified, the correlation included in the ISO/TR 11583 is capable of meeting its stated uncertainty limits for the experimental data presented here for vertically installed Venturis.     

一种永置式石油生产地面多井组单井轮巡 三相流监测装置及应用研究

为了解决传统石油开发集中计量方式难以获取单口油井油气水三相流相关参数的难题,采用流体体积和有限元分析等方法在建立该测量装置的数值仿真模型基础上对其结构参数、气液分离效果等进行了深入研究与优化,从而确定了该监测装置的最优结构参数,并研制了可以在现有集中计量环境中长期、稳定与可靠使用的一种永置式石油生产多井组单井轮巡三相流监测装置。另外,还在搭建的永置式石油生产地面多井组单井轮巡三相流多参数监测平台上开展了实验研究,实验结果表明,所研制的装置在气、液相流量5～70 m³/d,液相持水率50%～90%等混合流体下持水率、气量测量误差均小于10%,流量测量误差小于4%。仿真和实验均证明了永置式监测装置具有良好的多分相测量性能。     

Quantitative multiphase flow characterisation using an Earth's field NMR flow meter

We present a novel nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) multiphase flow metering system with the ability to interpret the flow regime and quantify both the liquid volumetric flowrate and holdup for gas-liquid flows. The flow measurement apparatus consists of a pre-polarising permanent magnet upstream of an Earth's field radio frequency NMR detection coil. In this work, the system is applied to measure the free induction decay (FID) NMR signal of gas-liquid flows at a range of flow rates in both the stratified and slug flow regimes. Tikhonov regularisation is applied to fit a model equation to the acquired FID signal in order to determine the relevant liquid velocity probability distribution. Signal interpretation applied to the individual NMR scans allows monitoring of both the liquid velocity and holdup with time. The NMR estimate of the liquid holdup is comparable to video analysis of the flowing stream through a transparent pipe section. The accuracy of the NMR metering system is successfully validated against an independent in-line rotameter measurement of the liquid volumetric flowrate during multiphase flow. Finally, analysis of the temporal variation in measured liquid flowrate is shown to clearly distinguish the stratified and slug flow regimes.