Three types of rotating electric field conductance sensors (REFCSs) with four, six, and eight electrodes are designed and optimized in this paper to measure the water holdup of oil–gas–water three-phase flow in vertical upward 20 mm inner diameter pipe. The geometric parameters of the REFCSs are optimized using finite element method to access highly sensitive and homogeneous detection fields. The performance of the REFCSs in the water holdup measurement of three-phase flows is experimentally evaluated by generalizing the Maxwell equation. Based on the measured water holdup from the REFCSs, the slippage behaviors in oil–gas–water are uncovered and the superficial velocity of the water phase is determined. The results show that the REFCSs present a high resolution in the water holdup measurement. The REFCS with eight electrodes has better performance than those with four- and six-electrodes, which indicates that its configuration and geometric parameters are more suitable for vertical oil–gas–water three-phase flow measurement in 20 mm inner diameter pipe.

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