Improving sand flow rate measurement using the wavelet transform and ultrasonic sensors

Abstract

Accurate sand flow rate measurement is needed to minimize the side effects of sand production in gas fields. There are concerns about the accuracy of sand flow measurement using the sand measuring devices available on the market. In this paper, ultrasonic sensors and discrete wavelet transform signal analysis method is used to measure the sand flow rate. It is found that the strength of the discrete wavelet coefficients in the frequency range of 15–62 kHz has a linear relationship with sand flow rate. This finding provides a new methodology to accurately measure sand flow rate. The proposed method does not need fluid velocity as a prerequisite for sand rate measurement, so it greatly simplifies the system design when flow meters are not used for fluid velocity measurement. Also, this method has a much simpler calibration procedure compared to that of the sand detectors commonly used in the industry.