Development of Gas-Liquid Slug Flow Measurement Using Continuous-Wave Doppler Ultrasound and Bandpass Power Spectral Density

Abstract

This paper addresses the issues of slug detection and characterization in air-water two-phase flow in a vertical pipeline. A novel non-invasive measurement technique using continuous-wave Doppler ultrasound (CWDU) and bandpass power spectral density (BPSD) is proposed for multiphase flow applications and compared with the more established gamma-ray densitometry measurement. In this work, analysis using time-frequency analysis of the CWDU is performed to infer the applicability of the BPSD method for observing the slug front and trailing bubbles in a multiphase flow. The CWDU used a piezo transmitter/receiver pair with an ultrasonic frequency of 500 kHz. Signal processing on the demodulated signal of Doppler frequency was done using the Butterworth bandpass filter on the power spectral density which reveals slugs from background bubbles. The experiments were carried out in the 2” vertical pipeline-riser at the process system engineering laboratory at Cranfield University. The 2-inch test facility used in this experiment is made up of a 54.8 mm internal diameter and 10.5 m high vertical riser connected to a 40 m long horizontal pipeline. Taylor bubbles were generated using a quick-closing air valve placed at the bottom of the riser underwater flow, with rates of 0.5 litres/s, 2 litres/s, and 4 litres/s. The CWDU spectrum of the measured signal along with the BPSD method is shown to describe the distinctive nature of the slugs.