Video imaging measurement of interfacial wave velocity in air-water flow through a horizontal elbow
Document Type
Conference Item
Publication Date
11-1-2001
Abstract
Two-phase flow in pipelines containing elbows represents a common situation in the oil and gas industries. This study deals with the stratified flow regime between the gas and liquid phase through an elbow. It is of interest to study the change in wave characteristics by measuring the wave velocity and wavelength at the inlet and outlet of the elbow. The experiments were performed under concurrent air-water stratified flow in a horizontal transparent polycarbonate pipe of 0.05m diameter and superficial air and water velocities up to 8.97 and 0.0778 m/s respectively. A non-intrusive video imaging technique was applied to capture the waves. For image analysis, a flame by frame direct overlapping method was used to detect for pulsating flow and a pixel shifting method based on the detection of minimum values in the overlap function was used to determine wave velocity and wavelength. Under superficial gas velocity of less than 4.44 m/s, the results suggest a regular pulsating outflow produced by the elbow. At higher gas velocities, more random pulsation was found and the emergence of localized interfacial waves was detected. Wave velocities measured by this technique were found to produce satisfactory agreement with direct measurements.
Keywords
Elbow, Interfacial waves, Two phase, Video imaging, Image analysis, Polycarbonates, Pulsatile flow, Two phase flow, Velocity measurement, Wave propagation, Video imaging, Imaging techniques
Divisions
fac_eng
Event Title
Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering, Photonic Systems and Applications
Event Location
Singapore
Event Dates
27 -30 November 2001
Event Type
conference
Additional Information
ISSN: 0277786X DOI: 10.1117/12.446621