EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF A CAPACITIVE TOMOGRAPHY SYSTEM FOR MULTIPHASE FLOW

Abstract

This paper presents the experimental development of a capacitive tomography system applied to the study of multiphase flows. A capacitance sensor with eight electrodes and a capacitance measurement transducer were constructed. The two-phase flow void fraction was obtained through an electric-mechanical measurement system. The reconstruction of the image of several two-phase flows was obtained using the linear back projection method. Numerical simulation of the capacitance values between electrode pairs wereperformed, through the method of finite elements, in order to obtain the sensibility maps. This experimental procedure showed the influence of several parameters on the quality of the reconstructed images. The quality of the reconstructed images for air-water and water-oil flows, for different void fractions, demonstrated the validity of the tomography system developed.