Lu-Sheng Zhai

A Four-Sector Conductance Method for Measuring and Characterizing Low-Velocity Oil–Water Two-Phase Flows

Measuring water holdup and characterizing the flow behavior of an oil-water two-phase flow is a contemporary and challenging problem of significant importance in industry. To address this problem, we develop a new method to design a new four-sector distributed conductance sensor. Specifically, we first use the finite-element method (FEM) to investigate the sensitivity distribution of the electric field and then calculate its response on the measurement electrodes. Based on the FEM analysis results, we extract two optimizing indexes to describe and find the optimum geometry for the four-sector distributed conductance sensor. We carry out oil-water two-phase flow experiments in a vertical upward pipe to validate the designed sensor implemented in the measurement of water holdup. In addition, we use the multivariate pseudo Wigner distribution (MPWD) method to analyze the multivariate signals from the four-sector distributed sensor. Our analytical and experimental results indicate that the four-sector distributed conductance sensor enables measuring water holdup and the MPWD allows uncovering local flow behavior revealing different oil-water flow patterns.

The development of a conductance method for measuring liquid holdup in horizontal oil?water two-phase flows

This paper presents the design and geometry optimization of a ring conductance probe for measuring the conductance of oil?water mixtures in horizontal pipes. Using the finite element method (FEM), we first investigate the sensitivity distribution of the electric field generated by a pair of ring-shaped exciting electrodes, and calculate the static response on the measurement electrodes under horizontal oil?water flow patterns; we then figure out the optimum geometry dimension with minimum deviation from linearity and high spatial resolution. Finally, we carry out the flow loop test in a horizontal oil?water two-phase flow pipe to obtain the measurement response of the ring conductance probe, and conclude some advantages for measuring liquid holdup with the newly designed conductance method.

Multivariate multiscale complex network analysis of vertical upward oil-water two-phase flow in a small diameter pipe.

High water cut and low velocity vertical upward oil-water two-phase flow is a typical complex system with the features of multiscale, unstable and non-homogenous. We first measure local flow information by using distributed conductance sensor and then develop a multivariate multiscale complex network (MMCN) to reveal the dispersed oil-in-water local flow behavior. Specifically, we infer complex networks at different scales from multi-channel measurements for three typical vertical oil-in-water flow patterns. Then we characterize the generated multiscale complex networks in terms of network clustering measure. The results suggest that the clustering coefficient entropy from the MMCN not only allows indicating the oil-in-water flow pattern transition but also enables to probe the dynamical flow behavior governing the transitions of vertical oil-water two-phase flow.

The measurement of gas–liquid two-phase flows in a small diameter pipe using a dual-sensor multi-electrode conductance probe

We design a dual-sensor multi-electrode conductance probe to measure the flow parameters of gas–liquid two-phase flows in a vertical pipe with an inner diameter of 20 mm. The designed conductance probe consists of a phase volume fraction sensor (PVFS) and a cross-correlation velocity sensor (CCVS). Through inserting an insulated flow deflector in the central part of the pipe, the gas–liquid two-phase flows are forced to pass through an annual space. The multiple electrodes of the PVFS and the CCVS are flush-mounted on the inside of the pipe wall and the outside of the flow deflector, respectively. The geometry dimension of the PVFS is optimized based on the distribution characteristics of the sensor sensitivity field. In the flow loop test of vertical upward gas–liquid two-phase flows, the output signals from the dual-sensor multi-electrode conductance probe are collected by a data acquisition device from the National Instruments (NI) Corporation. The information transferring characteristics of local flow structures in the annular space are investigated using the transfer entropy theory. Additionally, the kinematic wave velocity is measured based on the drift velocity model to investigate the propagation behavior of the stable kinematic wave in the annular space. Finally, according to the motion characteristics of the gas–liquid two-phase flows, the drift velocity model based on the flow patterns is constructed to measure the individual phase flow rate with higher accuracy.

The Finite Element Analysis for Parallel-wire Capacitance Probe in Small Diameter Two-phase Flow Pipe

Abstract This paper presents a novel capacitance probe, i.e. , parallel-wire capacitance probe (PWCP), for two-phase flow measurement. Using finite element method (FEM), the sensitivity field of the PWCP is investigated and the optimum sensor geometry is determiend in term of the characterisitc parameters. Then, the response of PWCP for the oil-water stratified flow is calculated, and it is found the PWCP has better linearity and sensitivity to the variation of water-layer thickness, and is almost independant of the angle between the oil-water interface and the sensor electrode. Finally, the static experiment for oil-water stratified flow is carried out and the calibration method of liquid holdup is presented.

Magnitude and sign correlations in conductance fluctuations of horizontal oil water two-phase flow

In experiment we firstly define five typical horizontal oil-water flow patterns. Then we introduce an approach for analyzing signals by decomposing the original signals increment into magnitude and sign series and exploring their scaling properties. We characterize the nonlinear and linear properties of horizontal oil-water two-phase flow, which relate to magnitude and sign series respectively. We find that the joint distribution of different scaling exponents can effectively identify flow patterns, and the detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA) on magnitude and sign series can represent typical horizontal oil-water two-phase flow dynamics characteristics. The results indicate that the magnitude and sign decomposition method can be a helpful tool for characterizing complex dynamics of horizontal oil-water two-phase flow.

Ultrasonic method for measuring water holdup of low velocity and high-water-cut oil-water two-phase flow

Oil reservoirs with low permeability and porosity that are in the middle and late exploitation periods in China’s onshore oil fields are mostly in the high-water-cut production stage. This stage is associated with severely non-uniform local-velocity flow profiles and dispersed-phase concentration (of oil droplets) in oil-water two-phase flow, which makes it difficult to measure water holdup in oil wells. In this study, we use an ultrasonic method based on a transmission-type sensor in oil-water two-phase flow to measure water holdup in low-velocity and high water-cut conditions. First, we optimize the excitation frequency of the ultrasonic sensor by calculating the sensitivity of the ultrasonic field using the finite element method for multiphysics coupling. Then we calculate the change trend of sound pressure level attenuation ratio with the increase in oil holdup to verify the feasibility of the employed diameter for the ultrasonic sensor. Based on the results, we then investigate the effects of oil-droplet diameter and distribution on the ultrasonic field. To further understand the measurement characteristics of the ultrasonic sensor, we perform a flow loop test on vertical upward oil-water two-phase flow and measure the responses of the optimized ultrasonic sensor. The results show that the ultrasonic sensor yields poor resolution for a dispersed oil slug in water flow (D OS/W flow), but the resolution is favorable for dispersed oil in water flow (D O/W flow) and very fine dispersed oil in water flow (VFD O/W flow). This research demonstrates the potential application of a pulsed-transmission ultrasonic method for measuring the fraction of individual components in oil-water two-phase flow with a low mixture velocity and high water cut.

Multi-scale symbolic time reverse analysis of gas–liquid two-phase flow structures

Gas–liquid two-phase flows are widely encountered in production processes of petroleum and chemical industry. Understanding the dynamic characteristics of multi-scale gas–liquid two-phase flow structures is of great significance for the optimization of production process and the measurement of flow parameters. In this paper, we propose a method of multi-scale symbolic time reverse (MSTR) analysis for gas–liquid two-phase flows. First, through extracting four time reverse asymmetry measures (TRAMs), i.e. Euclidean distance, difference entropy, percentage of constant words and percentage of reversible words, the time reverse asymmetry (TRA) behaviors of typical nonlinear systems are investigated from the perspective of multi-scale analysis, and the results show that the TRAMs are sensitive to the changing of dynamic characteristics underlying the complex nonlinear systems. Then, the MSTR analysis is used to study the conductance signals from gas–liquid two-phase flows. It is found that the multi-scale TRA analysis can effectively reveal the multi-scale structure characteristics and nonlinear evolution properties of the flow structures.

Response Characteristics of Coaxial Capacitance Sensor for Horizontal Segregated and Non-Uniform Oil-Water Two-Phase Flows

In this paper, the response characteristics of a coaxial capacitance sensor for horizontal oil-water two-phase flows with segregated and non-uniform phase distribution are investigated. First, the experiment of horizontal oil-water two-phase flow is carried out in a 20-mm inner diameter pipe with a flow concentration device. The response signals of the coaxial capacitance sensor under different flow patterns are collected by a data acquisition device. Meanwhile, the liquid holdup is measured using three pairs of parallel-wire capacitance probes and quick closing valve technology to uncover the complex slippage behaviors between phases. Then, the effects of the flow slippage and non-uniform phase distribution on the sensor response characteristics are investigated based on the equivalent impedance circuit analysis and adaptive optimal kernel time-frequency representation. In general, the results show that the coaxial capacitance sensor presents preferable response resolution for selected horizontal oil-water two-phase flow patterns, such as stratified flow and stratified flow with mixing at interface. However, as the flow pattern evolves to dispersed oil-in-water and water flow with high water-cut, the response resolution of the coaxial capacitance sensor is lower.

Capacitive Phase Shift Detection for Measuring Water Holdup in Horizontal Oil–Water Two-Phase Flow

In this paper, a phase shift detection system of flow impedance is designed based on a concave capacitance sensor (CCS). The flow impedance of oil–water stratified flow is investigated by establishing an equivalent circuit model and a finite element model. The influence of exciting frequency and sensor geometric parameters on the phase shift output of the CCS is studied to access an optimal phase shift measurement system. An experiment of horizontal oil–water two-phase flows was conducted during which four flow patterns are observed, i.e., stratified flow (ST), stratified wavy flow (SW), dual continuous flow (DC), and dispersed oil-in-water and water flow (DO/W&W). The phase shift responses of the CCS to the water holdup variation are collected. The results indicate that the phase shift response of the CCS presents satisfied sensitivity for ST and SW flow patterns, which is consistent with the predictions of the equivalent circuit model and the finite element model. Although the flow structures of DC and DO/W&W flows are extremely nonuniform, the phase shift response of the CCS still shows better linearity and sensitivity to the water holdup variation. In general, the capacitive phase shift detection technology exhibits advantages for water holdup measurement in horizontal oil–water two-phase flow with nonuniform phase distributions and conductive water.