Investigation of a method for real time quantification of gas bubbles in pipelines

Abstract

The need to measure the dynamic void fraction (the proportion of flowing bubbly liquid that is gas) is common across many power, processing and manufacturing industries. Many such pipelines and liquids are optically opaque, and work on margins that require a low cost solution that is not commensurate with the size of the challenge. Such a solution will therefore be a compromise, and in this paper costs are reduced by using a narrowband acoustic solution that cannot, on its own, contain enough information to characterize the void fraction in real time unambiguously. The ambiguity is reduced using likely estimates of the general shape of the bubble size distribution so that, with a single sourcereceiver pair attached to the outside of the pipe, the absolute gas content can be estimated. While the data that are required a priori (the general shape of the bubble size distribution) are not identical to the output of the inversion (the absolute void fraction of gas entrained as bubbles in the flow), the requirement for such a priori information could limit the usefulness of the technique in industry.

Bubble Acoustics From Whales to Other Worlds

“…Therefore after characterizing the bubble-free acoustics of the pipelines 71,72 , a solution was developed 63 . However high-level ORNL budget cuts half way through the contract required a completely different approach, which we also developed 73,74 (based on successful technology we invented for the pottery industry ), and fitted to SNS TTF (Figure 11). The technology was also adapted for outreach 76,77 .…”

From research to engagement to translation: words are cheap. Part 2 – a case study

“…the propagation of sound down a curved fluid column, and how horns and cones could facilitate this (discoveries that are used in the device, 3 but published for their ability to allow the sounds of voices and musical instruments on other planets to be simulated, a capability that has since been distributed to planetaria for their Outreach); 31-34 . the acoustic losses in water surrounded by a pressure-release interface (used in the device, 3 but also used to improve maritime safety); 35 . the propagation of sound in bubbly water contained in a vessel that supports coupled modes (used in the device, 3 but also for example, to support safety of the liquid mercury coolant containment system at the world's largest pulsed spallation neutron source, costing US$1.4 billion). 34,[36][37][38][39][40] Premature publication of other aspects of the 'vector' discoveries would have prevented patenting, which was required if the technology was to benefit society: without the protection of a patent, a manufacturer cannot sell the first products at a price that recoups the decade of research and development they paid for before ever any sales income came in, because a competitor (who is not pricing to recoup those R&D costs) can reverse-engineer a product and sell for a lower price. 1 Premature publication therefore can dissuade any industry from making the necessary investment in R&D.…”

“…In 2018, Sloan Water Technology Ltd, a new UK company, was formed, the author's patents being purchased from the University of Southampton. In the 1984-2019 period of research after the original discovery towards direct development of this device, whilst funds were obtained for offshoots of the work (in climate change, 8 nuclear technology 34,[37][38][39][40] etc. ), no RCUK or EU application for funding to support development of the technology 3,21 was ever successful, despite applications in 2018 and 2019 specifically warning of a future pandemic and outlining the need to invest in such technology 3 to make the washing of hands, doorhandles, keypads, Personal Protective Equipment and wounds etc.…”

Broadband Acoustic Inversion for Gas Flux Quantification—Application to a Methane Plume at Scanner Pockmark, Central North Sea

“…Consequently there is an inherent ambiguity in the gas flux estimated by a technique that only uses data containing a single frequency. This ambiguity exists even when only a single bubble is being measured in free field (Leighton et al, 1996) and becomes much greater if there are many bubbles (as here) or the bubbles are contained within a structure (Baik et al, 2014;Leighton et al, 2012). From this distribution the flux of the plume can be estimated (carrying forward any inherent ambiguity) using the calculated rise speeds of bubbles (Greinert & Nützel, 2004;Greinert et al, 2006;Greinert, Lewis, et al, 2010;Leblond et al, 2014;Nikolovska & Schanze, 2007).…”