Two-phase Flow Experiments with Coriolis Mass Flow Metering using Complex Signal Processing

Abstract— Two-phase (gas/liquid) flow is common in many industrial applications but its measurement remains challenging for Coriolis mass flow meters (CMFM), especially for high Gas Void Fraction (GVF). In this paper, we present experimental results applying previously developed complex signal processing techniques for tracking the rapidly changing sensor signals generated by two-phase flow. The techniques are implemented in a new System-on-Chip (SOC) prototype transmitter connected to a commercial Coriolis flow tube. Experiments have been carried out over a range of single phase and two-phase (water/air) flows. The signal tracking as well as mass flow rate and density measurement performance is compared with that of a laboratory version of a commercial Coriolis transmitter with two-phase flow capability. The result shows that the complex bandpass algorithms, coupled with flowtube control algorithms, reduce the standard deviation of the mass flow measurement by a factor of 3 or more in 50% of the experiments undertaken. For the density measurement, the corresponding reduction in standard deviation is by a factor of 6.