Air–water two-phase flow measurement using a Venturi meter and an electrical resistance tomography sensor

A method for air–water two-phase flow measurement is proposed using a Venturi meter combined with an Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT) sensor. Firstly, the real-time flow pattern of the two-phase flow is identified using the ERT sensor. Secondly, the void fraction of the two-phase flow is calculated from the conductance values through a void fraction measurement model, developed using the LS-SVM regression method. Thirdly, the mass quality is determined from the void fraction through void fraction-quality correlation. And finally, the mass flowrate of the two-phase flow is calculated from the mass quality and the differential pressure across the Venturi meter. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method is effective for the measurement of the mass flowrate of air–water flow. The proposed method introduces the flow pattern information in the measurement process, which minimizes the influence of flow pattern on the conventional differential pressure based methods. In addition, the mass quality is calculated from the void fraction, so the difficulty to obtain the mass quality in conventional methods is also overcome. Meanwhile, the new method is capable for providing concurrent measurements of multiple parameters of the two-phase flow including void fraction, mass quality and mass flowrate as well as an indication of the flow pattern.