Open AccessCombining Magnetic Induction Tomography and Electromagnetic Velocity Tomography for Water Continuous Multiphase Flows
Author(s) -
Lu Ma,
Dominic McCann,
Andrew Hunt
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
ieee sensors journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.681
H-Index - 121
eISSN - 1558-1748
pISSN - 1530-437X
DOI - 10.1109/jsen.2017.2758601
Subject(s) - signal processing and analysis , communication, networking and broadcast technologies , components, circuits, devices and systems , robotics and control systems
For oil fields producing high fractions of water, it is critical to be able to accurately meter the water volumetric flowrate for production allocation and field life optimization. This paper reports the measurement principles and experimental results of a multiphase flow meter prototype, capable of non-intrusively measuring the water volumetric flowrate in a multiphase flow. This research prototype is based on a novel concept of combining two tomographic systems-magnetic induction tomography and electromagnetic velocity tomography-for measuring the cross-sectional volumetric fraction and the local axial velocity of the water phase, respectively. The fundamental principles and imaging capability of each technique are shown. First impressions of the prototype performance are demonstrated using experimental data from an in-house flow loop. The challenges and potential improvements are also addressed.