Cyclonic Capacitive Sensor for Multiphase Composition Measurement

Abstract

A Cyclonic Capacitive Sensor is proposed for real time multiphase composition measurement with a characteristic suitable for offshore installations. The sensor makes a novel use of an electrostatic technique that takes advantage of a non-linear distribution of phase-interfaces in a cyclonic multiphase flow stratifier. The novel sensor consists of a stack of ring electrodes confined into a cyclone-type phase stratifier. The capacitance detected at each ring electrode pair is a function of the phase volumetric fraction, the temperature and chemical composition dependent phase permittivities and the physical dimensions of the ring electrodes. If the number of electrodes is made proportional to the number of unknown parameters, a complete set of linearly independent equations can be established to resolve the desired parameters, mainly the composition. The robustness of such sensor can be improved by adding a redundant electrode pair. Analytical, numerical and experimental analyses are presented. Copyright © 2015 IFSA Publishing, S. L.