An Improved Conductance Sensor With Inner-Outer Multi-Height Ring Electrodes for Measurement of Vertical Gas-Liquid Flow

An improved conductance sensor with inner-outer multi-height ring electrodes is designed to measure mixture velocity and superficial velocity of gas-liquid flow. Firstly, the geometry optimization of the sensor is obtained based on finite element analysis. Secondly, the water holdup is measured via the dynamic experiment of vertical upward gas-liquid flow with 20 mm diameter pipe. The relationship between cross-correlation velocity and mixture velocity under each flow pattern is formulated to calculate the superficial velocity combined with the drift-flux model. The absolute average percentage deviation of mixture velocity, gas superficial velocity and water superficial velocity are 2.42%, 3.39% and 3.51% respectively. The experimental results suggest that the high sensitivity design of the sensor can offer a powerful support for accurately measuring the flow parameters of gas-liquid flow.