I2MTC 2009 - International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference Singapore, 5-7 May 2009

Mass Flow Rate Measurement of Gas/Liquid TwoPhase Flow in Horizontal Pipe Based on V-cone Flow Meter and Adaptive Wavelet Network
Jun Han, Feng Dong
School of Electrical Engineering & Automation Tianjin University Tianjin, China e-mail: fdong@tju.edu.cn
AbstractA soft-measurement method for Gas/water mass flowrate was brought forward, in which the V-cone differential pressure meter was used and the adaptive wavelet network was developed to achieve the soft-measurement of the mass flow-rate. The multi-input single output model was adopted to approximate the mass flow-rate of Gas/liquid. The paper focused on the experimental measurement in horizontal pipe. Experimental results showed that the soft-measurement method combined Vcone with adaptive wavelet network could satisfy the demand of the mass flow-rate measurement and the measurement error of the mass flow-rate was relatively small. The test results show fast learning, good adaptability, and faster processing time of the adaptive wavelet network and the measurement error of the total mass flow-rate was also acceptable. The method is attractive for possible applications in multi-phase flow measurement. Keywords-adaptive wavelet network; differential pressure; gas/liquid two-phase flow; mass flow-rate; V-cone

Jun Han
Department of Educational Technology Capital Normal University Beijing, China e-mail: jameshan@vip.sina.com adopts a multi-input single output structure of adaptive wavelet network which has a good adaptability to differential flow regime. The preliminary study about mass flow-rate measurement was achieved with different differential pressure and dryness degree under differential flow regime. Experimental results showed that the method could satisfy the demand of the mass flow-rate measurement and the measurement error of the total mass flow-rate was acceptable. II. DIFFERENTIAL PRESSURE MODEL OF GAS/LIQUID AND V-CONE FLOW METER

I.

INTRODUCTION

Gas/liquid two-phase flow in horizontal pipe is very common in many industry processes, because of the complexity and variability, the real-time parameter measurement of two-phase flow, such as the measurement of flow rate, becomes a difficult issue in the field of engineering and science. Gas/liquid two-phase flow in horizontal pipe receives great attention in the research field of multi-phase flow [1]. The flow regime [2], [3], which ties up with the pressure, temperature and flow rate, could reflect the pattern and inner structure of two-phase flow. Based on different flow regimes, studying the pressure model of gas/liquid two-phase flow in horizontal pipe is an important aspect of the pressure model of gas/liquid two-phase flow. In this area, many scholars have done a lot work and have made remarkable achievements. In this paper, experimental measurement of gas/liquid twophase flow in horizontal pipe was based on the gas/water and the V-cone differential pressure meter [4][7] which could greatly reduce the energy cost and provide accurate measurement under extremely poor conditions. The theoretical model of differential pressure measurement is introduced and a new model of mass flow-rate soft-measurement is brought forward. The new model of mass flow-rate measurement
The author appreciates the support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (50776063) and the Natural Science Foundation of Tianjin (08JCZDJC17700).

A. Differential Pressure Model of Gas/Liquid Two-Phase Flow Measurement It was found that in the field of gas/liquid two-phase flow measurement based on differential pressure, there are already some differential pressure (DP) models, such as Homogeneous Model [1], [8], [9] and Separated Model which include Murdock correlation [8], Chisholm correlation [9], Lin correlation [10] and so on. The dryness XG and the difference pressure p are the main parameters to build DP models of gas/liquid two-phase flow. Since every correlation has its own adaptive condition and is subject to specific conditions, an optimized DP model from them could be found under a certain flow regime for V-cone flow meter. The equations for gas/liquid two-phase mass flow rate of the models are expressed as follows. The definition of symbols in the equations is that C is discharge coefficient, is thermal expansion factor, A is vcone flow area, is diameter ratio, P and PTP are the pressure drop, x is gas quality, G and L are the density of gas and liquid. 1) Homogeneous Model:

Wm =

CA 2 G P
1 4 G + x 1 G L L

(1)

978-1-4244-3353-7/09/$25.00 2009 IEEE

2) Murdock Correlation:

Wm =

CA 2PTP G
1 [ x + 1.26(1 x ) G L ]
4

(2)

3) Chisholm Correlation:

B. V-cone Flow Meter The throttling set is one of the primary elements used in the flow-rate measurement. When the fluid passes the throttling set, the cross section area of the fluid decreases, and the velocity of the fluid consequently increases, the difference between the upstream and the downstream of the throttling set results in the differential pressure. Thus, differential pressure can represent the flow-rate of the fluid [1], [8]. For the advantages of high reliability and accuracy, simple structure as well as easy installation, the throttling sets are already widely used in single phase flow measurement and now in broad investigation for the applications in two-phase flow rate measurement. In the middle of 1980s, appeared a new kind of V-Cone flow meter. The streamlined structure of Vcone decides its advantages. When fluids flow through the Vcone, the noise signal is much lower than that generated by other throttling sets. With a wider measurement scale, it can be more accurate and effective in flow rate measurement, for which, V-Cone becomes a popular research field for two-phase flow measurement [4], [5]. The V-cone flow meter has some merits. It have the throttling function, stability of the outflow coefficient, high repeatability, flowing adjustment function, self-protection function, noise reduction features, self- sweeping function and mixing function [4][7]. The V-cone flow meter use "V"shaped coaxial and conical tip which is installed in the pipeline to gradually throttle and contract the flow to the pipeline wall, and achieve the flow measurement by measuring the differential pressure around the "V" shape cone.

Wm =

CA 2 G PTP
x 1 4 1 + L G
0.25

(3)
0.25

+ G L

+ 2

Where =

PL WL G 1 x G . = = PG WG L x L

4) Lin Correlation:

Wm =

CA 2PTP G
1 4 [ x + (1 x ) G L ]

(4)

Where, is the corrective coefficient. In Homogeneous Model, gas/liquid two-phase flow is considered as well-mixed single-phase flow with a mixed density and the measurement error of this equation is considerable big especially when the gas mass quality is small and pressure is low. A coefficient has been added in The Murdock correlation. The experiment condition for Murdock correlation is that gas mass quality x: 0.11-0.98 and the pressure: 0.1- 4 MPa. Slip equation is taken into consideration in Chisholm correlation. When the experiment pressure is 1.07.0 MPa and the gas mass quality x 0.1, the prediction error of this correlation is about 20% and it is relatively larger. This error reduces with the increase of experiment pressure and gas mass quality. In the Lin correlation, a simple and rational relationship for the flow rate is put forward by introduction of a corrective coefficient in this correlation. The is a function of G/L and is derived from the experiment of high G/L condition across a sharp edged circular orifice. Lin correlation performs well especially when the G/L is high or the gas mass quality x is large [8][10]. The above equation's input parameters are mainly dryness and the differential pressure. These DP equations are deduced from the orifice plate meter and venturi tube not V-cone flow meter [8][10], so directly using these DP equations to V-cone flow meter would cause considerable larger measurement error, every equation has its own adaptive condition such as the flow regime and an optimum DP equation from them could be found under a certain flow regime for V-cone flow meter. Based on the two parameters of the dryness XG and the difference pressure p, it is necessary to building the appropriate flow-rate measurement method of V-cone to adapt to a wider measurement scale.

Figure 1. Schematic of V-cone throttling set.

The higher pressure of the differential pressure (positive pressure) is the static pressure p1 which is measured at the mouth place of the pipe wall before contraction of upstream fluid, and lower pressure of the differential pressure (negative pressure) is the pressure p2 which is measured at the measuring pressure hole where is in the central axis towards the downstream of the cone. The structure and principle of V-cone flow meter is shown in Fig.1. This kind of flow meter will only produce turbulent flow (small eddy flow) which has high frequency and low scale at the downstream of the throttling set, so the measured signal of differential pressure p by the flow meter is the low noise signal, the pressure whose sensitivity (resolution) is better than 2.5mm water column's pressure could be measured at the measuring hole of lower pressure, and could get a very wide measuring range ratio ( more than 15:1 ) and high repeatability which surpasses 0.1% could be obtained by only using one differential pressure transmitter.

III.

WAVELET NEURAL NETWORK MODEL

Wavelet theory [12], [13] has been extensively studied and applied in various areas throughout science and engineering in recent years. If (t) and ( w) have a fast decay to zero when |t| and |w|, respectively, any signal can be expanded as a sum of rescaled and time-shifted versions of a single function L2(R) provided by (5). In this context, is termed as the mother wavelet and the functions (a,b) are called wavelets. Parameters a, b are termed as scale and translation, respectively. The wavelet transform with respect to the wavelet family is then defined by (6), when assuming that satisfies R(t)dt=0.

N w jn x n (t ) b1 j L (t ) = W j n =1 y aj j =1

b . 2

(7)

(a, b ) a 2

t a , a, b R, a 0. b
1 2

Where (t) is the wavelet transfer function, wjn is the connection weight between the jth hidden neuron with the nth input neuron, wj is the connection weight between the jth hidden neuron with the output neuron, b1j is the translate factor of the wavelet transform, aj is the scale factor of the wavelet transform, b2 is the bias parameter in the output neurons, L is the number of hidden neurons, N is the number of input neurons, respectively. The wavelet neural network given by (7) is applied to the multi-input single output system for gas/water two-phase flow measurement application. The wavelet series limited linear superimposition is used to approach the data curve of the total mass flow-rate of gas and water. Namely the curve may carry on the approximation by the wavelet base a,b(t). In our study, the bias parameter b2 in the output neuron is set to 0 and Morlet wavelet is used for the hidden layer. The Morlet wavelet has been chosen as the mother wavelet and it is the Gauss wavelet of cosine modulation [12]. The presentation of it is as below

(5)

(Tf )(a, b ) =

f , a , b = a

f (t )

t a dt . b

(6)

The idea of combining wavelets with neural networks has led to the development of wavelet networks (WNs) [14], where the nonlinear wavelets were used as a substitute for the activation functions Sigmoid of the hidden neurons in traditional feed forward neural networks with a linear output neuron. Since signals of interest can usually be expressed using wavelet decompositions, and signal processing algorithms can be performed by adjusting only the corresponding wavelet coefficients. Combined the frequency and temporal characteristics with the self-learning function of neural networks, the wavelet networks can be provided with the stronger ability of approximation and fault-tolerant [14][17]. In our study, the wavelet neural network model for the multi-input and a single output system consists of three layers. The input layer is signal input nodes. The hidden layer contained the wavelets also called transfer functions. The output layer is a linear neuron. The structure of the wavelet neural network is as shown in Fig.2.

t2 (t ) = cos(1.75t ) exp . 2

(8)

The number of input neurons N is set to 2, one of input variables is the differential pressure p and another is the dryness XG. The output node (t) is the total gas/water mass flow-rate which is calculated by model. The number L of hidden neurons is adaptive to adjust, and it can be gradually established by a trial method. The wavelet function is especially sensitive to scale coefficient and translation coefficient, therefore the number of hidden wavelet nodes should be large enough, to ensure the stability of network. In our study, the number L of hidden neurons is set to 100 by a trial method [14], [16]. Besides the connection weight wjn between the hidden layer with the input layer and the connection weight wj between the output layers with the hidden layer, the scale parameters aj and the translation parameters b1j in the adapted WNs can be adjusted by the corresponding learning algorithm. The goal is determined that network parameters wjn, wj, aj and b1j, makes that approximate value (t) and expected value y(t) of the total mass flow-rate is the optimal approximation sequence. And the parameters wjn, wj, aj and b1j can be optimized by minimizing the Least-Mean-Square (LMS) [16] energy E. The E-function is defined by

E=
Figure 2. Multi-input single output wavelet neural network.

1 D 2 [y (t ) y(t )] . 2 t =1

(9)

The wavelet neural network structure model is given by

Where D is the number of training samples, (t) is the total gas/water mass flow-rate which is calculated by model in of training samples t, and y(t) is the expected value of training samples t, respectively.

A learning algorithm modifies the wavelet network parameters, that is, the scale and translation coefficients of every wavelet neuron, as well as the weights of the linear combination (network input and network output). To minimize E we may use the method of steepest descent which requires the gradients E/wjn, E/wj, E/aj and E/b1j for updating the incremental changes to each particular parameter wjn, wj, aj and b1j, respectively. The incremental changes to each particular parameter are simply the negatives of their gradients wjn = -1 E/wjn, wj = -2 E/wj, aj = -3 E/aj and b1j = -4 E/b1j where 1, 2, 3, 4 are the learning step. The gradients of E are obtained from
D T2 E = [ y (t ) y (t )] cos(1.75 T ) exp 2 w j t =1

important to choose the value of d1 and d2 that can give an acceptable convergence speed. It is also important to choose the initial value of wjn, wj, aj, b1j, 1, 2, 3, and 4 that can give an appropriate model. IV. EXPERIMENT AND DATA ANALYSIS

The diagram of the experimental facility of gas/water twophase flow is shown in Fig.3.

(10)

D E = [ y (t ) y (t )]w j 1 x n (t ) / a j w jn t =1

E x n (t ) . = b1 j
D E = [ y (t ) y (t )] w j 2 / a j . b1 j t =1

(11)

(12)
Figure 3. Experimental facility of gas/water two-phase flow.

D E E = [ y (t ) y (t )]w j 3 / a j = T . a j b1 j t =1

(13)

Where
T2 T + 1.75 sin (1.75 T ) exp 2 . 2 2 T T 2 = 1.75 cos(1.75 T ) exp 2 + cos(1.75 T ) exp 2 T .

1 = cos(1.75 T ) exp

T2 2

T2 T2 2 T + cos(1.75 T ) exp 2 T . 2 The learning step is changed by the method of variable learning rate. That is to change the learning strategies according to the change of error E [16], [17].

3 = 1.75 cos(1.75 T ) exp

The flow of gas-water is controlled by computer control and measurement system. The V-cone differential pressure meter which is equipped in a transparent horizontal pipe obtains upstream and downstream differential pressure as the gas/water mixture passes through the V-cone, and the high precision pressure sensors are used to acquire differential pressure signal. At the same time, the standard flow-meter feedback the flow signal to the computer control and measurement system. After the medium of gas phase and liquid phase have passed through the single-phase flow measurement instruments, the two-phase is fully mixed by the liquid ejector and then enters experimental pipe section. The pipe diameter Dp in test pipe section is 50 mm, the throttling ratio is 0.65. The spacing between the pressure holes is 56 mm. The front cone angle is 45o, the behind cone angle is 65o.The roughness of the pipe wall is generally 0.06 mm. After the pipe line is full of water and the data of singlephase water is acquired, we start experimental measurement of gas/water two-phase flow in horizontal pipe. We gradually increase the gas flux, and then we acquire the differential pressure data and record the flow regimes which are stable status. At the same time, the average dryness value XG is recorded by the computer control and measurement system. We control the gas volume as far as possible, so as to get the typical flow regimes as many as possible. In order to validate the test repeatability, the data is re-acquired under flow status, used to compare with the primary data and confirmed the conclusions obtained by the primary data. The data of 6 groups

i =

d 1 i (t 1) when E (t ) E (t 1) . i = 1, 2, 3, 4 (14) d 2 i (t 1) when E (t ) > E (t 1)

In our study, it is observed that a choice of the values 1.05 for d1 and 0.75 for d2 gives satisfactory results for the given example in the training process. The initial network parameters wjn, wj, aj and b1j are 0-1 random values. The initial values of the learning step 1, 2, 3, 4 are 0.00002 and the maximum error goal was 0.01. The increase in the number of training iterations may not necessarily reduce the error. It is therefore

is acquired. In each group, there are differential pressure data of 20 points which is corresponding to the different rate of gas/water and the one status of flow regimes. Under one point, 40000 differential pressure data are acquired. The data of six groups was divided into two parts, one part is three training sets and another part is three test sets. The flow regimes changing under experimental point of six groups is shown as TABLE. I.
TABLE I. Points 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
One

by using adequate training sets and the network training. The errors are often larger in the transition of two flow regimes. The model is also adaptive to various situations of flow regimes.

FLOW REGIMES UNDER EXPERIMENTAL POINT Training Sets

Two Three One

Test Sets
Two Three

S-P B ST SP SP P P P LP LP A A A LP P P SP SP ST ST

S-P ST ST ST-P P P LP LP LP A LP LP P P P P P ST ST B

S-P B ST-P SP SP P LP LP A A A LP LP P P P P P-ST ST B

S-P B P-ST P P P LP LP A A A LP LP LP P P P P ST B

S-P ST ST-P P P P LP LP A A A LP LP LP LP P P P-ST ST ST

S-P ST-P P P P P P LP A A A A LP LP LP P P P ST ST

Figure 4. Training iteration of network.

(a). 1st test group.

* B = Bubble flow ; P= Plug flow ( LP = Long plug flow, SP = Short plug flow ); ST = Stratified flow ; A = Annular flow ; S-P = Single-phase flow (Full of water) ; ST-P = The state of transition from Stratified flow to Plug flow ; P-ST = The state of transition from Plug flow to Stratified flow

After the structure of wavelet network model has been established and completed training, the data in test set is used to test the model. In test set, the 40000 points of differential pressure data under one acquired point is averaged to a mean data. The (203) mean value and the corresponding dryness value XG in three test sets are used to test the network of wavelet network model. Testing of the network was done by using input data that are independent from the training set. In the training set, the 40000 differential pressure data under one acquired point is averaged to 10 mean data. The 10203 mean data in the three training sets and the corresponding dryness value XG are used in wavelet network model of differential pressure to train the network of wavelet network model and gradually established the numbed L of hidden layer in wavelet network. Finally, the number L of hidden neurons is set to 100 by test. The training iteration of network convergence for the model is presented in Fig. 4. The mass flow-rate measurement of the approximation and the error in the test sets are shown in Fig.5. Experimental results showed that the measurement method combined V-cone differential pressure measurement with adaptive wavelet network could satisfy the demand of the mass flow-rate measurement; the measurement error of the total mass flow-rate was acceptable. For the status of the same regimes and the particular situation, the error could be smaller

(b). 2nd test group.

(c). 3rd test group. Figure 5. Test results.

V. CONCLUSION The total mass flow-rate measurement of gas/water twophase flow in horizontal pipe is important for multi-phase flow research. In this paper, a suitable model for total mass flow-rate measurement using a wavelet-network model is described. The proposed wavelet neural network model can be used to produce a reasonable approximation of total mass flow-rate.

In the results, the model is optimum DP model for V-cone flow meter and suitable for various situations of different flow regime. It is a suitable model for total mass flow-rate measurement of gas/liquid two-phase flow with a wider measurement scale. The adaptive wavelet network has the memory function of flow regimes, so it has the universal application to various situations of flow regimes. It can be seen from error curve that the training process of convergence changes. With the exception of slower local convergence, the basic trend of the overall error is decreasing and the convergence is better. It was found that selecting a proper input data and structure to the network is the major factors that affect the accuracy of the network. Choosing the value of the network parameters and the structure are important to build the appropriate model. The wavelet network model also shows stronger ability of approximation and fault-tolerant by updating its parameters. The wavelet neural network model gives acceptable solutions, and is attractive for possible applications in multi-phase flow measurement. REFERENCES
[1] [2] G. Hetsroni, Handbook of Multiphase Systems. Hemisphere, USA: New York, 1988. F. Dong, Y. B. Xu, L. Hua and H. X. Wang, Two methods for measurement of gas-liquid flows in vertical upward pipe using dual-lane ERT system, IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas., vol. 55, pp.1576-1586, Oct. 2006.

[3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]

P. Angeli and G. F. Hewitt, Pressure gradient in horizontal liquid-liquid flows, Int. J. Multiphase Flow, vol. 24, pp. 1183-1203, 1998. A. Philip and V. Lawrence, V-cone technology: DP metering for the new millennium. McCROMETER corp. D. G. Nel. Stewart, Wet gas metering with V-cone meter, North Sea Flow Measurement Workshop, 22nd-25th, Oct. 2002. S. Caldwell, T. Kegel, and R. J. W. Peters, Calib-ration of large high pressure V-cone flow meter at high reynolds numbers in the CEESI Iowa natural gas test facility, FLOMEKO Paper REF, vol. 011, 2003. R. Steven, Research developments in wet gas metering with V-Cone meters, North Sea Flow Measurement Workshop, Oct. 28-31, 2003. J. W. Murdock, Two-phase flow measurement with orifices, J. Basic. Eng., pp. 419-433, 1962. D. Chisholm, Two-phase flow through sharp-edged orifices, J. Mech. Eng. Sci., vol. 19, pp.128-130, 1977. Z. H. Lin, Two-phase flow measurements with sharp-edged orifices, Int. J. Multiphase Flow., vol. 18, pp.683-693, 1982. Y. Taitel and A. E. Dukler, A model for predicting flow regime transitions in horizontal and near horizontal gas-liquid flow, AICHE J., vol. 22, pp. 47-55, 1976. I. Daubechies, Ten Lectures on Wavelets. Philadelphia, PA: SIAM, 1992. D. Clifton and P.S. Addison, Using wavelet transform reassignment techniques for ECG characterization, Computers in Cardiology, pp. 581-584, 2003. Q. Zhang and A. Benveniste, Wavelet networks, IEEE Trans. Neural Netw., vol. 3, pp. 889-898, Nov. 1992. Z.Z. Zhao, and W.G. Chen, Fault classification based on adaptive wavelet-based neural networks, J. Vibration, Measurement & Diagnosis, vol. 21, pp. 213-221, Mar. 2001. H. Szu and T. Brian, Neural network adaptive wavelets for signal representation and classification, J. Optical Engineering, vol. 31, pp.1907-1916, 1992. C. L Liu and X. Wang, New adaptive wavelet neural network for ECG recognition, J. System Simulation, vol. 19, pp. 3281-3282, July 2007.