The thermal effect on electrical capacitance sensor for two-phase flow monitoring

One of major errors in flow rate measurement for two-phase flow using an Electrical Capacitance Sensor (ECS) concerns sensor sensitivity under temperature raise. The thermal effect on electrical capacitance sensor (ECS) system for air water two-phase flow monitoring include sensor sensitivity, capacitance measurements, capacitance change and node potential distribution is reported in this paper. The rules of 12-electrode sensor parameters such as capacitance, capacitance change, and change rate of capacitance and sensitivity map the basis of Air water two-phase flow permittivity distribution and temperature raise are discussed by ANSYS and MATLAB, which are combined to simulate sensor characteristic. The cross-sectional void fraction as a function of temperature is determined from the scripting capabilities in ANSYS simulation. The results show that the temperature raise had a detrimental effect on the electrodes sensitivity and sensitive domain of electrodes. The FE results are in excellent agreement with an experimental result available in the literature, thus validating the accuracy and reliability of the proposed flow rate measurement system.