Weighing without Touching: Applying Electrical Capacitance Tomography to Mass Flowrate Measurement in Multiphase Flows

Abstract

Electrical capacitance tomography has a well-established reputation as a research tool and has been used in a number of industrial applications including dry solids flows, gas–liquid flows, and wet gas flows. Electrical capacitance tomography can give detailed flow structure information that has been experimentally validated against other techniques. Here, we focus on its use for measuring the detailed flow structure and overall mass flowrate of dispersed dry solids in gravity-drop flows. Electrical capacitance tomography–based flowmeters capable of being mass-produced and deployed into the commercial industrial environment are being developed, and prototypes are available, but none are yet in full-scale manufacture. Sensors of this type are being designed for applications in milling, power generation, and pneumatic transport. The same sensor technology may also be applied to measurements of gas–liquid flows in oilfield applications.