Determination of volume fractions in two-phase flows from sound speed measurement [electronic resource].

Published:: Los Alamos, N.M. : Los Alamos National Laboratory, 2012.
Oak Ridge, Tenn. : Distributed by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, U.S. Dept. of Energy.
Additional Creators:: Los Alamos National Laboratory and United States. Department of Energy. Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Access Online

www.osti.gov

Availability

Finding items...

Restrictions on Access:

Free-to-read Unrestricted online access

Summary:

Accurate measurement of the composition of oil-water emulsions within the process environment is a challenging problem in the oil industry. Ultrasonic techniques are promising because they are non-invasive and can penetrate optically opaque mixtures. This paper presents a method of determining the volume fractions of two immiscible fluids in a homogenized two-phase flow by measuring the speed of sound through the composite fluid along with the instantaneous temperature. Two separate algorithms are developed by representing the composite density as (i) a linear combination of the two densities, and (ii) a non-linear fractional formulation. Both methods lead to a quadratic equation with temperature dependent coefficients, the root of which yields the volume fraction. The densities and sound speeds are calibrated at various temperatures for each fluid component, and the fitted polynomial is used in the final algorithm. We present results when the new algorithm is applied to mixtures of crude oil and process water from two different oil fields, and a comparison of our results with a Coriolis meter; the difference between mean values is less than 1%. Analytical and numerical studies of sensitivity of the calculated volume fraction to temperature changes and calibration errors are also presented.

Report Numbers:

E 1.99:la-ur-12-24127
la-ur-12-24127

Subject(s):

Other Subject(s):

Note:

Published through SciTech Connect.
08/15/2012.
"la-ur-12-24127"
Internoise 2012/ASME NCAD Meeting ; 2012-08-19 - 2012-08-22 ; New York, New York, United States.
Sinha, Dipen N.; Chaudhuri, Anirban; Osterhoudt, Curtis F.
CRADA

Funding Information:

AC52-06NA25396

View MARC record | catkey: 14103185