Application of dual-plane ERT system and cross-correlation technique to measure gas–liquid flows in vertical upward pipe

The progress of process tomography provides a new method for two-phase flow measurement. The dual-plane electrical resistance tomography (ERT) is combined with the correlation measurement technique to carry out the two-phase flow measurement in which the continuous phase is conductive liquid. The method of the estimation of void fraction and the disperse phase velocity by extracting the eigenvalue of the dual-plane ERT boundary measured data is presented. This method is applied to the transient flow-rate measurement of the air–water two-phase flow in vertical pipe. The information of disperse phase void fraction and distribution variation with time change can be considered adequately, and the estimated value of disperse phase void fraction and velocity can be gained fairly accurately in this method, which provides the data for the calculation of the transient flow-rate. The experiment results indicate that this kind of measurement method is valid when the distance between the upstream and downstream measured cross section is short enough.