Comparison between Electrical Capacitance Tomography and Wire Mesh Sensor Output for Air/Silicone Oil Flow in a Vertical Pipe

Two tomographic techniques have been applied simultaneously to the flow of air and silicone oil in 67 mm internal diameter vertical pipe. A twin plane electrical capacitance tomgraphy (ECT) electrode system driven by Tomoflow electronics was positioned below a new capacitance wire mesh sensor (WMS) system. The former used 8 electrodes around the pipe in each plane, the latter employed two arrays of 24 evenly spaced wires stretched over the pipe cross-section. The ECT measurement was triggered from the WMS electronics. High speed videos were also taken simultaneously through the transparent pipe wall. Gas superficial velocities of 0.05−5.5 m/s and liquid superficial velocities of 0−0.7 m/s were studied. These gave bubbly, slug, and churn flow in the pipe. The outputs of the two techniques have been compared at a number of levels. At its most basic, the time averaged cross-sectionally averaged void fractions were compared. They showed excellent agreement. At the next level, the time series of the cross-sect...