Temperature Effect in Multiphase Flow Meter Using Slotted Orifice Plate

Abstract

Multiphase flow metering is one of the major focuses to develop in oil and gas industries. A combination of slotted orifice plate and electrical impedance technique was investigated in order to provide further development of a new type of multiphase flow meter. Flow visualization was conducted in this study to show the performance of the slotted orifice plate to homogenize the mixture flow and continued with the pattern flow discussion.

The visualization studied showed that the slotted orifice plate can be applied as a flow conditioner for two-phase flow in the pipe in many patterns flow. An existing pattern flow map based on the velocity of the each component in the mixture showed that the flow regime is a volumetric flow rate and gas volume fraction (GVF) dependant.

Temperature affected the measurement results based on the mixture conductivity behavior. Using a combination of linearization technique and curve fit method, the effect of the temperature to the measurement results can be eliminated for GVF range from 2.5% to 97.5%. The slotted orifice characteristics were then investigated with using the calibration factor, Euler number, and Morrison number with respect to differential pressure and pressure of the mixture flow.