Finite Element Analysis of Oil-Water Two-Phase Conductance Sensor

Multiphase flows are widely existed in petroleum industrial production process, the sensor-based flow pattern detection has a practical significance for us to understand the flow characteristics and optimize production process. In particular, the flow pattern detection based on the multi-sensor method has an important academic value for revealing the dynamical evolution of multiphase flow. We first design and optimize sectoral conductivity sensor by using finite element analysis software ANSYS for measuring the holdup of two-phase flow. Then three parameters of the electrode angle, height and distance were optimized to analyze the sensor's sensitivity distribution characteristics and obtain the optimal parameters of the sensor. Finally we obtain the numerical results between the holdup and thconductivity and determine the feasibility of the design.