Electrical and Optical Probe for Two-Phase Flow Monitoring

Two-phase flows of gas and liquid streams in pipes are used in various industries, such as the pharmaceutical, energy, petrochemical, and food industries. Therefore, monitoring and investigation of phenomena related to the flow are of significance for various applications. The construction and evaluation of an electrical and optical probe for the monitoring of two-phase flows in industrial environments are presented in this paper. The probe consists of two stainless-steel electrodes positioned transverse to the flow to measure the fluid electrical conductance. One of the electrodes is hollow. An optical fiber Bragg grating sensor is used to measure the strain. In order to verify the probe performance, two calibration techniques (static and dynamic) along with a mathematical model for strain measurement are employed. The experimental data from the two calibrations are in good agreement with the theoretical values. The developed probe is applied in a two-phase flow test bench to monitor different two-phase flows in the slug flow regime. The obtained results demonstrate its capability to monitor specific parameters of this flow regime. Therefore, the proposed sensor is very promising for flow monitoring.