BACKGROUND OF CASE STUDY

Company
GE Measurement and Control
Project
Working on developing technology architecture for a two phase flow meter to
meet the required performance set by industry
Tested Location
In house 2 phase loop facility, National Enigineering Lab, UK & Southwest
Research Institute, US
 DIFFERENTIATING ELEMENTS

Some of the differentiating elements are the following :-

Phase fraction estimate immune to property variation
The impedance sensor system can estimate liquid property real time using
novel excitation methodologies
Models used for estimating liquid to gas ratio are constantly updated
Eliminates the need for frequent sampling of liquid/fluid.
Impedance hardware that can seamlessly operate across the oil and
water continuous flows
In two phase flow, the liquid either exists in what are called oil continuous
or water continuous regimes.
The conventional approach to measure both regimes properties is by using
two different instruments in the two types of flows
But GE has built custom hardware which has been proven to have a
bandwidth that is wide enough for it to operate seamlessly between changes
in flow conditions.
This ensures that for a given application, a wide operating range can be
covered using only one instrument.
Microwave sensors that operate at varying salinity while estimating
water-cut reliably
Microwave sensors used in two phase meters currently available in the market
cannot operate in liquids with high salinity.
A novel antenna system designed by GE offers high reliability through a
protective radome flushed with the inner diameter of the pipe
While this sensor can be utilized for evaluating water-cut and gas division,
another microwave sensor can track and gauge the differing saltiness in total
terms.
Ultrasound Doppler to profile liquid velocity
A direct measure of the liquid velocity is one of the hardest measurements
for a two phase flow meter to make.
Using Ultrasound Doppler technique on two phase flow, we can provide
information that is not obtained from other technologies.
With the richness of information that GEs Doppler method can provide, the
measurement accuracy and reliability can be considerably improved.
Dual venturi & differential pressure sensor design for reliable
viscosity independent
measurements
With water-cut variation over life of the well, viscosity of the liquid mixture is
an unknown.
The discharge coefficient of the venturi (which is a critical parameter for
estimating the total mass flow rate) is strongly related to the viscosity of the
liquid.
Using a dual venturi design with multiple differential pressure measurements
and using smart estimation methods, the viscosity dependency can be
eliminated from the total mass flow rate estimation.