No abstract

The current paper focuses on design and laboratory evaluation of a dual-modality sensor, developed for the needs of oil and gas extraction industry to measure the composition of heterogeneous mixtures in harsh conditions. The sensor combines ultrasonic and electrical measurement techniques, which are non-destructive, rapid and can potentially provide an on-line industrial measurement. Such a 'dual-modality' measurement could potentially be reliable in a wider range of process conditions. A distinct feature of the sensors presented here is their construction, which makes use of the thick-film technology, enabling the construction of multi-layered structures of both conductive and non-conductive layers, some of which may exhibit piezoelectric properties for ultrasonic measurement purposes. These are later fired on a ceramic substrate to provide rugged sensors, capable of working in aggressive industrial environments. Laboratory experiments to investigate the feasibility of the dual-modality sensors were conducted and some comparisons with the theoretical predictions are presented.

This paper presents an experimental study to investigate the suitability of thick-film ultrasonic transducers for composition measurements in heterogeneous mixtures.

This paper focuses on the development of a multi-electrode capacitance probe for interface measurement and phase detection within industrial three-phase separators, used in oil and gas extraction and oil refining processes. The sensors are constructed using printed circuit board (PCB) technology and are embedded within stainless steel casings forming the structure of the probe. The design process was aided by the finite element solutions of the three-dimensional electrostatic problem. A number of solutions were obtained which predict the probe readings for various configurations of phases. Validation of the probe performance was performed using a combination of laboratory and industrial tests in a real scale separator, both with representative process media. A good agreement between the experiments and modelling is shown.

The work presented in this paper focuses on development of a dual modality sensor, for deployment within an oil and gas extraction plant to measure the composition of oil-water mixtures. The sensors combine ultrasonic and electrical measurement techniques. These are of course non-destructive, rapid, and can potentially provide an on-line industrial measurement. In addition, the combination of two techniques could potentially be reliable in a wider range of process conditions and could contain self-calibration features. The sensors used in the current study were manufactured using thick-film technology, which enables construction of multilayered structures of both conductive and non-conductive layers, some of which may exhibit piezoelectric properties for ultrasonic measurement purposes. These are later fired on a ceramic substrate to provide rugged sensors, capable of working in aggressive industrial environments. Experiments were conducted for mixtures of vegetable oil and saline water to investigate the feasibility of such dual dual-modality sensors. The time of flight of ultrasonic wave in pure liquids and heterogeneous mixtures was measured. It has been shown that the signal obtained from the transducers is sufficiently strong to warrant the measurement of the speed of sound in heterogeneous mixtures of oil and water. A study of the effects of oil concentration and temperature on the speed of sound has been conducted. A mathematical model has been tested, which relates the speed of sound to the volume fraction taking into account the reflection and refraction on the droplet interfaces. The experimental results subjected to linear regression agree very well with the theoretical predictions. The electrical measurement was conducted at three different frequencies. In general, the values of capacitance and conductance decrease with increasing oil percentage. In the middle oil percentages a discontinuity occurs in the decreasing trend. In the high oil percentages, the experimental results agree very well with theoretical predictions.