A laboratory experiment to measure component volume fractions in a multiphase flow of an oil/gas/water mixture, where water is the discontinuous phase, has been conducted using a measurement system based on electrical capacitance tomography. The image reconstruction algorithm of the electrical capacitance tomography system has been modified to incorporate entropic thresholding methods, which facilitate accurate information extraction from the tomograms. Evaluation results show that this approach, using only one thresholding method, fails to meet the desired requirements over the full component volume fraction range, is flow regime dependent and is highly dependent on the concentration of the components in the mixture. However, some of the algorithms developed are complementary with the conventional algorithms over the full component volume fraction range. Integration of complementary algorithms improves the overall measurement results to within the desired requirements for operational purposes in the oil industry.
Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT) is an image generating system based on soft field sensory system. The preferred Linear Back Projection (LPB) reconstruction algorithm for multi-phase measurement has blurring effect on the image generated. These two inherent factors, among others, affect the quality of image generated from ECT systems. Introducing fitting in the image generation process is one the solutions to improving its quality. In this article an alternative fitting mechanism based on the Gompertz function has been developed and evaluated. Comparative analysis results shows improvement on the spatial quality of images generated, in terms of minimum relative image and distribution errors, maximum correlation coefficient, and at relatively no additional computational cost. The mechanism is more effective for annular than stratified flow data hence complimenting the weakness of Xie method for annular flow.
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