A new Spool Piece for horizontal two-phase flow measurement

This works presents the characterization of a Spool Piece (SP), made up of a Classical Venturi and a Wire Mesh Sensor (WMS), that are installed in a horizontal test section, in which an air-water mixture flows. The test section consists of a horizontal Plexiglas pipe of internal diameter 19.5 mm and total length of about 7 m. The flow quality ranges from 0 to 0.73 and the superficial velocity ranges from 0.14 to 32 m/s for air and from 0.019 to 2.62 m/s for water; the pressure ranges from atmospheric pressure to 4 bar depending on the experimental conditions. The observed flow patterns are stratified-bubbly-slug/plug-annular. The instruments response is analyzed and discussed. From the signal analysis the mass flow rate of each phase is obtained. The developed model allows the evaluation of the mass flow rate with an accuracy higher than 20% in the 84% of the cases and with an accuracy higher than 10% in the 73.3% of the cases Finally the introduction of the estimated parameters in the SP model is considered and discussed.