Experimental Investigation of Horizontal Gas-Liquid Stratified and Annular Flow using Wire Mesh Sensor

Stratified and annular gas-liquid flow patterns are commonly encountered in oil and gas transportation pipelines. The measurement and visualization of two-phase flow characteristics is of great importance as two-phase flows persist in many fluids engineering applications. A Wire Mesh Sensor technique based on conductance measurements was applied to investigate two-phase horizontal pipe flow. The horizontal flow test section consisting of a 76 mm ID pipe, 18 m long was employed to generate stratified and annular flow conditions. A 16x16 wire configuration sensor, installed at 17 m from the inlet test section, is used to determine the void fraction within the cross-section of the pipe. Physical flow parameters were extracted based on processed raw measured data obtained by the sensors using signal processing techniques. In this work, the principle of wire mesh sensors and the methodology of flow parameter extraction are described. From the obtained raw data time series of void fraction, mean void fraction and characteristic liquid film velocities are determined for different liquid and gas superficial velocities that ranged from 0.03 m/s to 0.2 m/s and from 9 m/s to 34 m/s, respectively. The effects of liquid viscosity on the measured parameters are also investigated using three different viscosities.