Design and Construction of a Two-Phase Flow Homogenizer Loop for Volume Fraction Measurement in Solid-Liquid as Well as Liquid-Liquid Mixtures by γ-Ray Attenuation Technique

Abstract

Multiphase flow metering, has been one of the most important issues in oil/gas industry, since the early 80s. Oil-water two-phase flow, shows off specially in flow meters that work based on separation of oil-water-gas three-phase flow into liquid (oil-water), and gas streams just before measurement. Here, at first, two-phase flow homogenizer loop (TPFHL) as a solid-liquid as well as liquid-liquid homogenizer loop, is introduced, and then its performance accuracy is verified by counting the transmitted gamma-rays of a 137Cs radioactive source. The acceptable results, compared to the reference data, endorse the capability of the introduced loop in conjunction with the gamma densitometer for volume fraction measurement in a wide range of two-phase mixtures. Moreover, the instrumentation usage for oil-water component fraction measurement was simulated, using an 241Am gamma source which showed a good agreement with the authentically published results.

Keywords

• two-phase flow
• homogenized two-phase flow
• oil-water two-phase flow
• tpfhl
• γ-ray transmission technique