A parallel-wire microwave resonant sensor for measurement of water holdup in high water-cut oil-in-water flows

In the present study, we propose a parallel-wire microwave resonant sensor (PMRS) with transmission-through configuration for water holdup measurement in high water-cut oil-in-water flows. Through the finite element method (FEM) analysis using HESS software, the variations of sensor responses for changing water holdup and salinity are investigated. In this manner, the optimum working frequency of microwave resonant sensor is tuned to 1.8 GHz. With the designed PMRS measurement system, an experimental test of vertical high water-cut oil-in-water flows is conducted in a 20 mm inner diameter pipe, through which the relationship among dimensionless normalized phase output of PMRS which reflects the water holdup information, water-cut and total flow rate are investigated. The results show that PMRS presents a high resolution in measurement of water holdup. By establishing statistics models, water-cut can be accurately predicted. Besides, PMRS can still retain high resolution under the circumstance of high salinity. To conclude, PMRS can possess high resolution in measurement of water holdup with both high water-cut and salinity variation in oil-in-water flows, and satisfactory water-cut measurement results can be achieved.