Multimodal analysis of gas-oil intermittent structures in co-current horizontal flow

Abstract

Multiphase flow measurement aims to accurately quantify the flow rates of the fluids flowing through a pipe. Depending on the measurement principle, the accuracy can be heavily affected by the spatial distribution of flow components. The component distributions or flow patterns vary depending on the fluid properties and process conditions. The present work reports the measurement principles and analysis of the data simultaneously acquired from a multimodal metering device. A combined multimodal analysis, encompassing hard and soft tomography techniques, potentially leads to enhanced accuracy of the flow fractions. The multimodal approach exploited here combines Gamma-Ray tomography (GRT) and Electric Capacitance tomography (ECT). The metering methodology combines the robustness and high resolution of the techniques for density stratification and permittivity distributions imaging. The fundamental principles and imaging capabilities of each technique are addressed here. First results of the multimodal approach performance are also demonstrated using intermittent flow structure data obtained from the multiphase flow loop at NORCE Technology. The challenges and potential improvements are also stated.