Size, Distribution, and Acoustic Impedance Quantization of Bubbles and Droplets Using Ultrasonic Complex Sound Pressure

Oil–gas–water three-phase medium is frequently encountered in various industrial processes. A comprehensive understanding of the discrete phase is of great importance for the industrial process safety assurance and economic benefits of production. Concerns about the discrete phase in the three-phase medium not only refer to the spatial resolution but also acoustically distinguish the gas bubble and oil droplet. We present a novel ultrasonic measurement technique for the three-phase medium using the ultrasonic phased array (UPA) sensor and complex sound pressure measurement to accomplish this goal. The proposed method can accurately provide size and location measurements to spatially resolve the bubble and droplet, and accurately provide acoustic impedance measurements to distinguish the bubble and droplet in oil-gas-water three-phase medium. In brief, we develop a forward scattering complex sound pressure peak (FSCSPP) method to quantitatively characterize the size and distribution of the bubble and droplet, a sound transmission degree (STD) method to calculate these discrete phases’ acoustic impedance values, and a sound transmission threshold (STT) parameter to distinguish the bubble and droplet. The simulation and experimental results show that the above method is highly accurate and sensitive in spatially resolving and acoustically distinguishing the bubble and droplet in the oil–gas–water three-phase medium.