University of Leeds

Qiang Wang

Mi Wang

Jiabin Jia

Bishal Karki

Yousef Faraj

A flow monitoring system is described for monitoring flow of a mixed-phase sample comprising at least a first phase and a second phase having different electrical conductivities, the second phase being a liquid or a gas and substantially electrically non-conductive and the first phase being a liquid and having a conductivity higher than the second phase. The system comprises: a conduit through which the mixed-phase sample can be arranged to flow; tomography apparatus arranged to generate tomography data indicative of at least a first conductivity profile of at least a portion of a first cross section of the mixed phase sample when flowing through the conduit; a flow meter arranged to detect flow of the first phase though the conduit and provide a flow signal indicative of a flow velocity of the first phase; and processing means adapted to calculate, from said data, a fraction of said first cross section occupied by the first phase, and calculate, from said fraction and said flow signal, a volumetric flow rate of the first phase through the conduit.

Tomography apparatus, multi-phase flow monitoring system, and corresponding methods

Tomography apparatus comprises: a plurality of electrodes arranged around a perimeter of a cross section of a sample volume for containing a liquid or mixed-phase sample, each electrode being arranged to be in electrical contact with a sample contained in the sample volume; measurement means adapted to perform a set of measurements, each measurement comprising driving a current between a first respective adjacent pair of said electrodes and measuring a voltage developed across a second respective adjacent pair of said electrodes; and processing means adapted to generate a tomogram indicative of sample conductivity over said cross section from said set of measurements. The processing means is arranged to calculate sample conductivity values of a portion of said cross section from said set of measurements and generate said tomogram from said calculated sample conductivity values of said portion using an assumption of symmetry.

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Leeds, United Kingdom

Qiang Wang