Capacitive measuring system for two-phase flow monitoring. Part 1: Hardware design and evaluation

• Novel capacitive measuring system for two-phase flow is presented.
• Detailed description on system design and evaluation is provided.
• Measuring system is based on a microcontroller which allows for embedded data processing.

Two-phase flows are commonly found in many industrial applications, such as oil and gas production. The monitoring of such flows is performed either in field applications or in pilot plant studies. In both cases, simple and robust measuring techniques are required. Capacitive probes have been applied for void fraction measurement in pipes in research and industry. However, capacitive measuring systems applied so far are tailored for specific applications and may not be easily adaptable. In addition, more and more soft-computing methods are applied for advanced data processing and parameter extraction which requires more computational power of sensor systems for online data processing. We develop a capacitive system provided with a microcontroller in which necessary routines for data processing may be embedded. System design is detailed explained and system's performance is evaluated, showing appropriate accuracy and time response for the investigation of two-phase flows.