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Article

Development of Gas-Liquid Slug Flow Measurement Using Continuous-Wave Doppler Ultrasound and Bandpass Power Spectral Density

by
Somtochukwu Godfrey Nnabuife
1,*,
Prafull Sharma
1,
Ebuwa Iyore Aburime
2,
Pauline Long’or Lokidor
1 and
Abdulrauf Bello
3
1
School of Water, Energy, and Environment, Cranfield University, Cranfield MK43 0AL, UK
2
Department of Chemical Engineering, the University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 73301, USA
3
School of Engineering, University of Aberdeen King’s College, Aberdeen AB24 3UE, UK
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
ChemEngineering 2021, 5(1), 2; https://doi.org/10.3390/chemengineering5010002
Submission received: 4 November 2020 / Revised: 14 December 2020 / Accepted: 30 December 2020 / Published: 8 January 2021

Abstract

This paper addresses the issues of slug detection and characterization in air-water two-phase flow in a vertical pipeline. A novel non-invasive measurement technique using continuous-wave Doppler ultrasound (CWDU) and bandpass power spectral density (BPSD) is proposed for multiphase flow applications and compared with the more established gamma-ray densitometry measurement. In this work, analysis using time-frequency analysis of the CWDU is performed to infer the applicability of the BPSD method for observing the slug front and trailing bubbles in a multiphase flow. The CWDU used a piezo transmitter/receiver pair with an ultrasonic frequency of 500 kHz. Signal processing on the demodulated signal of Doppler frequency was done using the Butterworth bandpass filter on the power spectral density which reveals slugs from background bubbles. The experiments were carried out in the 2” vertical pipeline-riser at the process system engineering laboratory at Cranfield University. The 2-inch test facility used in this experiment is made up of a 54.8 mm internal diameter and 10.5 m high vertical riser connected to a 40 m long horizontal pipeline. Taylor bubbles were generated using a quick-closing air valve placed at the bottom of the riser underwater flow, with rates of 0.5 litres/s, 2 litres/s, and 4 litres/s. The CWDU spectrum of the measured signal along with the BPSD method is shown to describe the distinctive nature of the slugs.
Keywords: continuous-wave Doppler ultrasound (CWDU); bandpass power spectral density (BPSD); spectral kurtosis; vertical riser; flow regime; multiphase flow measurement continuous-wave Doppler ultrasound (CWDU); bandpass power spectral density (BPSD); spectral kurtosis; vertical riser; flow regime; multiphase flow measurement

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MDPI and ACS Style

Nnabuife, S.G.; Sharma, P.; Iyore Aburime, E.; Lokidor, P.L.; Bello, A. Development of Gas-Liquid Slug Flow Measurement Using Continuous-Wave Doppler Ultrasound and Bandpass Power Spectral Density. ChemEngineering 2021, 5, 2. https://doi.org/10.3390/chemengineering5010002

AMA Style

Nnabuife SG, Sharma P, Iyore Aburime E, Lokidor PL, Bello A. Development of Gas-Liquid Slug Flow Measurement Using Continuous-Wave Doppler Ultrasound and Bandpass Power Spectral Density. ChemEngineering. 2021; 5(1):2. https://doi.org/10.3390/chemengineering5010002

Chicago/Turabian Style

Nnabuife, Somtochukwu Godfrey, Prafull Sharma, Ebuwa Iyore Aburime, Pauline Long’or Lokidor, and Abdulrauf Bello. 2021. "Development of Gas-Liquid Slug Flow Measurement Using Continuous-Wave Doppler Ultrasound and Bandpass Power Spectral Density" ChemEngineering 5, no. 1: 2. https://doi.org/10.3390/chemengineering5010002

APA Style

Nnabuife, S. G., Sharma, P., Iyore Aburime, E., Lokidor, P. L., & Bello, A. (2021). Development of Gas-Liquid Slug Flow Measurement Using Continuous-Wave Doppler Ultrasound and Bandpass Power Spectral Density. ChemEngineering, 5(1), 2. https://doi.org/10.3390/chemengineering5010002

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