Jean-Paul Chemla

High resolution processing techniques for ultrasound Doppler velocimetry in the presence of colored noise. II. Multiplephase pipe-flow velocity measurement

For pt.I see ibid., vol.50, no.3, p.267-78 (2003). This paper presents an application of continuous wave ultrasound Doppler velocity measurements to two-phase flow in pipes. In many petroleum wells, the multiphase flow is separated into two phases: the first is a liquid phase and the second is a gas phase with small scatterers. The problem of multiphase velocity profile measurements has not been satisfactorily solved by classical approaches due to the multiphase nature of the fluid and the presence of colored noise, which introduces a significant bias in classical frequency estimators. We propose the use of resolution frequency techniques to overcome the classical limitations. Direct estimation of Doppler frequency then obtained using either time frequency maximum frequency or arguments of poles of the parametric model that identifies the Doppler part of the signal is discussed. The tests made with synthetic Doppler signals and two-phase flow have demonstrated the excellent performance of the high resolution techniques based on reassignment and parametric techniques.