A Distributed Conductance Cross-Correlation Method for Measuring Low-Velocity and High Water-Cut Oil-Water Flows

Oil-water two-phase flow widely exists in the oil production and transportation. The flow pattern presents obvious complexity due to non-uniform distribution of water and oil. When the onshore oilfields are on a middle-late stage of oil recovery, the oil production gradually decreases and the water-cut increases. Accurate measurement of oil-water two-phase flow is a significant issue to improve oil production performance and optimize oil reservoir management. Therefore, we propose a distributed four-sector conductance cross-correlation sensor to realize the flow pattern classification and the measurement of flow velocity and water holdup for low-velocity and high water-cut oil-water flows in a 20 mm inner diameter pipe. The geometry dimension is optimized according to the sensitive field distributions of the sensor. In the flow loop test of vertical upward oil-water two-phase flow, the output signals measured from upstream and downstream electrodes are used to figure out three flow patterns combining with a high-speed camera, and the cross-correlation velocity. Then we use the kinematic wave theory to connect the relationship between the cross-correlation flow velocity and the mixture flow velocity considering water- cut and flow patterns. In addition, according to Maxwell equation, we calculate the water holdup. Finally, a drift velocity model based on three flow patterns is constructed to measure the oil phase superficial velocity.