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Meas. Sci. Technol. 8 (1997) 691–701. Printed in the UK PII: S0957-0233(97)81063-6

REVIEW ARTICLE

Recent developments in three-phase

flow measurement
R Thorn†§, G A Johansen‡k and E A Hammer‡¶
† Department of Fluid Engineering and Instrumentation, Cranfield University,
Cranfield, Bedfordshire MK43 0AL, UK
‡ Department of Physics, University of Bergen, Allégaten 55, N-5007 Bergen,
Norway

Received 20 January 1997, accepted for publication 7 March 1997

Abstract. The problem of how to meter oil–water–gas mixtures has been a

significant one in the oil industry since the early 1980s. Since then, considerable
research has been conducted into the development of a three-phase flowmeter
suitable for use in an offshore environment. This work discusses why three-phase
flow measurement is important, the principal strategies and technologies which
may be used to meter three-phase flows, and reviews the status of some currently
available solutions.

Richard Thorn obtained a Erling Hammer obtained a

PhD from Bradford Univer-
sity in 1979 for work on
cross-correlation flow mea-
surement, and is currently a
Senior Lecturer in the De-
partment of Fluid Engineer-
ing and Instrumentation at
Cranfield University. Previ-
ous to this he was at Chr
Michelsen Institute, Bergen,
and then the School of Elec-
tronic Engineering, University
of South Australia. He has
co-authored three books and
many papers on measure-
ment science and instrumentation. His main research
interests are the development of multiphase instrumentation
and the structured design of measurement systems.
PhD from the University of
Manchester, Institute of Sci-
ence and Technology
(UMIST), for work on three-
phase flow measurement,
and is currently a Professor of
Instrumentation in the Applied
Physics and Technology Sec-
tion, Department of Physics,
University of Bergen, Nor-
way. Previous to this he
was at Chr Michelsen In-
stitute, Bergen, where he
worked as a Researcher,
Section Leader, Senior Scientist and Assistant Director. He
has written a book on Instrumentation and Measurement
Technology and co-authored two other books. He has
written many papers and research reports on process
instrumentation and measurement, and has been invited
as a keynote speaker to many conferences on multiphase
flowmetering. His main research interests are multiphase
instrumentation and process tomography.

Geir Anton Johansen is

an Associate Professor and
Manager of the Industrial
Instrumentation Programme
in the Applied Physics and
Technology Section, Depart-
ment of Physics, University
of Bergen. He received his
Dr Scient degree (PhD) for
research on nuclear radia-
tion detectors in 1990, and
since then nucleonic instru-
mentation has remained a
field of special interest to him.
His other research interests
are industrial instrumentation systems, such as gamma-ray
densitometry and tomography systems.
1. Introduction
Multiphase flows are common in the petroleum indus-
try, and yet their measurement nearly always presents
difficulties to the process engineer. The traditional solution
to the problem of metering multiphase flows is to sepa-
rate the components of the flow first, and then measure
§ Tel: (01234) 754739. Fax: (01234) 750728. E-mail address:
r.thorn@cranfield.ac.uk
k Tel: + 4755 582745. Fax: + 4755 589440. E-mail address:
geir.johansen@fi.uib.no
¶ Tel: + 4755 582703. Fax: + 4755 589440. E-mail address:
erling.hammer@fi.uib.no

0957-0233/97/070691+11$19.50 c 1997 IOP Publishing Ltd 691

R Thorn et al

the flowrate of each using conventional single-phase in-

struments. For example when metering the production of
an oil well for fiscal purposes, the oil–water–gas mixture
produced by the well is separated and then the oil and gas
components metered, usually using turbine meters and ori-
fice plates.
While there is currently no alternative to separation and
metering for fiscal purposes, there are other parts of the
oil production process, such as well monitoring, where this
solution is both inconvenient and expensive. In applications
Figure 1. The basic elements of a typical offshore
such as this, there is a need for a three-phase flowmeter.
production system.
The problem of how to meter oil–water–gas mixtures
has been of interest to the petroleum industry since the
early 1980s. Since then considerable research has been
conducted into the development of a three-phase flowmeter
suitable for use in an industrial environment (Mackley
1993). Ideally such an instrument needs to be reasonably
accurate (typically ±5% of rate for each phase), non-
intrusive, reliable, flow regime independent, and suitable
for use over the full component fraction range. In
spite of the large number of solutions that have been
proposed in recent years, no commercially available three-
phase flowmeter yet meets all these requirements, although
some are getting close. Three-phase flow measurement
therefore remains a problem, and not surprisingly, the Flow
Panel of the recent UK Measurement Foresight Programme Figure 2. Potential applications for a three-phase
concluded that oil–water–gas flow measurement was still a flowmeter on an offshore production facility.
research area of strategic performance (DTI 1995).
This paper discusses why three-phase flow measurement
production platform for separation and metering. The satel-
is important, and why it has proved such a difficult problem
lite fields may be owned by different operators. In order to
to solve. Some of the principal technologies and strate-
meet fiscal standards of accuracy, the metering of a well’s
gies which have been developed over the last ten years for
output can at present only be performed after separation.
three-phase flow measurement are described. Finally, fu-
The paper by Gold (1986) gives a good account of fiscal
ture developments in this area are considered. While this
metering systems used in the petroleum industry.
paper focuses specifically on oil–water–gas measurement,
Despite the fact that three-component flowmeters
there are many other examples of multiphase flow in the
are currently not accurate enough for fiscal metering
process industry. Information on other types of multiphase applications, there are two other areas of the oil and
flow measurement can be found in review papers by Baker gas production process in which they are playing an
(1991), Rajan et al (1993) and Pal (1994). increasingly important role; these are well testing and
allocation measurement (Dykesteen 1995).
2. The need for a three-phase flowmeter In order to optimize the production and life of a field,
operators need to be able to regularly monitor the output
The output of an oil–gas reservoir can vary greatly, de- of each well in the field. The conventional way of doing
pending on the location and age of the well. In addition to this is to use a test separator. Test separators are expensive,
the oil and gas components, water, sand and wax may also occupy valuable space on a production platform and take
be present in the produced well stream. Since the location a long time to monitor each well because of the stabilized
and output of a well can vary so widely, then not surpris- flow conditions required. In addition, test separators are
ingly, the systems that have been designed to collect and only moderately accurate (typically ±5 to 10% of each
process this output also vary considerably. In addition new phase flowrate) and cannot be used for continuous well
concepts are continually being developed to take account of monitoring. A three-phase flowmeter could be used in the
the difficult locations of new finds (such as deep water) and first instance instead of a test separator and in the long term
increasingly competitive economic conditions. In the North as a permanent installation on each well (figure 2).
Sea sector for example, in order to facilitate the develop- Allocation metering is needed when a common pipeline
ment of small and marginal fields, the move has been away is used to transport the output from a number of wells
from the use of expensive fixed platforms for each field, owned by different companies to a processing facility.
and towards satellite fields with shared separation and pro- This is currently achieved by passing the output of each
cessing facilities. Figure 1 shows the main elements of an well through a test separator before it enters the common
offshore production system. In this case the output from a pipeline. However, in addition to the disadvantages of
number of satellite fields is collected at a production mani- the test separator described above, dedicated test pipelines
fold and transported through a common pipeline to a central to each well are also required. A permanently installed

692

three-phase flowmeter would offer significant advantages
for allocation metering.
Although the use of a three-phase flowmeter offers op-
erational advantages in well testing and allocation applica-
tions, they also offer significant economic advantages. For
example, Barson et al (1993) compared the cost of using a
three-phase flowmeter to that of using a conventional top-
side separator with test lines, for the subsea metering of a
satellite well. They showed the total cost of a three-phase
flowmeter taken over the lifetime of the field to be at least
47% less than that of the conventional solution.
3. Performance requirements of a three-phase
flowmeter
Most people in the petroleum industry would agree that the
ideal three-phase flowmeter does not yet exist. However
there is far less agreement on the target specification that
flowmeter developers should be aiming for in order to
produce an instrument which is of use.
An ideal three-component flowmeter should be able to
measure accurately over the complete fraction range of
each component—but what range and accuracy are good
enough until that ideal flowmeter is developed? A group
of major oil companies have reviewed their multiphase
metering needs and identified common range and accuracy
requirements (Slijkerman et al 1995). A gas volume
fraction range of 0–99%, and a water cut range of 0–
90%, with the ability to measure total liquid flowrate
and gas flowrate with a relative error of less than ±5%–
±10% was suggested, the more accurate performance
being required for production allocation applications. It
was also suggested that the absolute error in water cut
measurement be less than ±2%. The reason for this is
that companies are now operating in fields where oil can be
economically produced with water fractions above 90%. In
such circumstances the water fraction has to be accurately
measured in order to optimize the life of the field. While the
above are of course only a guide, they show how changes
in production techniques and the exploitation of marginal
fields are producing the need to meter over wider and wider
component fraction ranges.
As far as mechanical construction is concerned, it has
long been suggested that a three-component flowmeter
should ideally be non-intrusive in order to avoid sensor
erosion and pressure drop. Wolff (1993) suggests that a
pressure drop across a flowmeter of 100 kPa is probably
the maximum that could be tolerated in future satellite
production stations. With high-temperature and high-
pressure wells becoming more common, reducing the
number of access holes required in a pipeline is increasingly
important. While flowmeter complexity in itself is not a
problem, the need for reliability and minimum maintenance
is important, especially for subsea flowmeters.
4. Measurement strategies
The primary information required from the user of a three-
phase flowmeter is the mass flowrate of the oil, water and
gas components in the flow. An ideal flowmeter would
Recent developments in three-phase flow measurement
Figure 3. The inferential method of three-phase flow
measurement.
make independent direct measurements of each of these
quantities. Unfortunately, direct mass flowmeters for use
with two-phase flows are rare and do not exist at all for use
with three-phase flows.
An alternative to direct mass flow measurement is to use
an inferential method. An inferential mass method requires
both the instantaneous velocity and cross sectional fraction
of each component to be known in order to calculate
the individual component mass flowrates and total mixture
mass flowrate M (figure 3).
Since density information on the oil, water and gas
components is readily available from other parts of the
production process, the problem is therefore to measure
the oil, water and gas velocities (vo , vw and vg ) and two of
the component fractions (usually gas void fraction α and
water fraction β):
M = αvg σg + βvw σw + [1 − (α + β)]vo σo (1)
where σg , σw and σo are the densities of the gas, water and
oil fractions.
Two strategies have been used to try and reduce the
difficulty of the above measurement—partial separation
and homogenization (Hewitt 1989). Partial separation
of a three-phase flow into, for instance, gas and liquid
components allows more conventional single- and two-
phase techniques to be used for measurement of each of
the separated flows. If the flow is homogenized before
being measured then it is assumed that the phase velocities
are equal, and that the density of the mixture is the same
across the pipe cross section, thus reducing the number and
difficulty of measurements required.
Techniques which can be used to measure the
component fraction and component velocity of an oil–
water–gas mixture will be discussed in the following
sections.
5. Component fraction measurement
The two most commonly used methods for measuring
gas and water fractions in a multiphase flow are based
on γ -ray attenuation and electrical impedance techniques.
In addition to these methods, there are a number of
alternative techniques for measuring component fractions
which have been used or are being developed for industrial
applications. These include microwave attenuation and
phase shift, pulsed neutron activation (PNA) and nuclear
magnetic resonance (NMR).
693
R Thorn et al
Figure 4. Cross section of a conventional γ -ray
densitometer showing beam attenuation for gas, oil and
water components.
5.1. γ-ray attenuation methods
If a source of γ -radiation I0 is placed on one side of a
pipe in which an oil–water–gas mixture is flowing, then
the intensity of the beam of radiation I after it has passed
through the flow is given by:
I = I0 B exp[−d(χ µo + βµw + αµg )] (2)
where µo , µw , µg are the linear attenuation coefficients
of the oil, water and gas components, d is the effective
inner diameter of the pipe and B is the build-up factor
due to scattered radiation (figure 4). The terms attenuation
and absorption are often used interchangeably in the
flow measurement community. Attenuation is, however,
preferred since it includes all the interaction mechanisms
(e.g. scattering and absorption) that take place between
the radiation and the fluid. In order to determine the
oil, water and gas fractions (χ , β and α) using this
technique two independent measurements are required.
One option is to obtain a second measurement using a
different technology such as capacitance measurements (see
for example Dykesteen (1992)). However if the use of
only one technology is preferred, then two independent
measurements can be obtained using the dual-energy
technique.
If two radiation sources with different photon
energies (and attenuation coefficients) are used, then two
independent equations of the type shown in equation (2)
can be obtained and combined with the fact that the cross
sectional sum of the oil, water and gas fractions equals one
in order to determine the oil, water and gas fractions. Dual-
energy component fraction measurement systems have been
investigated by a number of groups including Abouelwafa
and Kendall (1980), Roach et al (1994), Van Santen et al
(1995) and Hewitt et al (1995).
While in principle dual-energy γ -ray attenuation
methods are elegant, in practice a number of difficulties
have to be overcome. As with all radiation measurement
methods, because of the statistical nature of the source there
is a compromise between measurement time and accuracy.
The greater the accuracy required, the longer will be the
measurement period. More intense sources can be used
to reduce the measurement period, but at the expense
of increased safety precautions. In addition to source
694
intensity, the energy level of the two sources to be used
is also important. Van Santen et al (1995) have developed
guidelines for selection of the two photon energies to be
used.
Although γ -ray methods can be used over the complete
range of component fractions, the salinity of the water
component can cause problems. Since salt has a high
attenuation coefficient compared to that of water, a change
in the salinity of the water phase will cause a significant
error in the measured water fraction, unless this is
compensated for. Scheers and Letton (1996) have described
a triple-energy γ -ray absorption system in which a third
energy level is used to calculate the salinity of the water
fraction.
All of the dual-energy methods described so far use
a single radiation beam. The limitation of single-beam
methods is that they are flow regime dependent. The
component fractions calculated from equation (2) will only
be representative of the complete flow cross section if
the oil, water and gas components are homogeneously
mixed. Multibeam arrangements may be used to overcome
the problems of flow regime dependency, although they
are more complex and more expensive than single-beam
devices. Single-energy multibeam γ -ray systems have been
developed as part of a dual-sensor flow imaging system
(Johansen et al 1996).
γ -ray attenuation is a non-intrusive, reliable and
relatively inexpensive method of component fraction
measurement whose accuracy is independent of the flow’s
component ratio. The use of low-energy radiation reduces
the radiation hazards involved, but requires radiation
windows to be embedded in the pipe (Johansen and Åbro
1996). The clamp-on potential of the technique is then lost,
but this is not an essential requirement for most three-phase
metering applications.
5.2. Electrical impedance methods
The basic principle of the impedance method of component
fraction measurement is shown in figure 5. If the electrical
impedance (Ze ) is measured across two electrodes, between
which an oil–water–gas mixture is flowing, then the
measured resistance (Re ) and capacitance (Ce ) will be given
by:
1 + ω 2 Rm
2
(Cm + Cp )2
Re = (3)
ω Rm Cp2
2
[1 + ω2 Rm
2
Cm (Cm + Cp )]Cp
Ce = . (4)
1 + ω Rm
2 2 (C + C )2
m p
The resistance (Rm ) and capacitance (Cm ) of the mixture
flowing through the pipe depends on the permittivity and
conductivity of the oil, water and gas components, the
void fraction and water fraction of the flow, and the flow
regime. The resistance and capacitance measured across
the electrodes will in turn depend upon Rm , Cm , the
excitation frequency ω of the detection electronics and the
geometry and materials of the sensor. For a particular
sensor geometry (and hence fixed Cp ) and flow regime,
the measured impedance will be a direct function of the
flow’s component ratio.

Figure 5. The impedance method of component fraction
measurement.
As with γ -ray attenuation methods two independent
measurements are required to determine the oil, water and
gas fractions. Hybrid options combine the measurement of
sensor capacitance or sensor resistance with that obtained
using a second technology. Capacitance and γ -ray
attenuation systems are a commonly used example of this
strategy (see for example Fischer (1994)). If the use
of a purely electrical technology is preferred then two
independent measurements can be obtained using both the
resistance and capacitance of the sensor. However, in oil
continuous mixtures Re is large and can be difficult to
measure reliably.
Dykesteen et al (1985) investigated an impedance
method for component fraction measurement in oil–water–
gas flows. A mathematical model of the dielectric
properties of the three-component mixture was used to
relate the resistance and capacitance measured across the
sensor to the void fraction and water fraction of the flow.
This method was tested experimentally for homogeneous
mixtures.
Impedance methods of component fraction measurement
have attracted a great deal of interest because, like γ -ray
attenuation methods, they can be used as the basis of a
non-intrusive instrument. However, they have the advan-
tage over γ -ray methods that an almost instantaneous dy-
namic response can be achieved without running into safety
problems.
Impedance based methods suffer from two important
limitations—they cannot be used over the full component
fraction range and are flow regime dependent. For flows
in which water is the continuous phase, a short circuiting
effect will occur caused by the conductive water, and as
a result the measured Ce will remain constant even when
the water fraction in the flow varies (Hammer and Thorn
1985). This effect occurs at sensor excitation frequencies:
σw
fc < (5)
2πε0 εw
where σw and εw are the conductivity and permittivity
of the water component respectively. For process water,
where typically σw = 5 S m−1 and εw = 70, the
shorting effect will occur at frequencies below 1.3 GHz.
Therefore for operation below microwave frequencies the
impedance technique is limited to flows in which oil or
gas is the continuous component. This can still mean
that the technique can sometimes be used for mixtures
Recent developments in three-phase flow measurement
with water fractions of up to 80%. However, the point
at which a flow will change from an oil or gas continuous
to water continuous mixture is not stable and depends on
many factors including the fluids’ properties, temperature
and pressure. Adding corrosion inhibitors to the flow can
also cause problems since this will lower the water fraction
at which a flow becomes water continuous. In common
with all resistance and capacitance methods of component
fraction measurement, the calibration of an impedance
component fraction meter is dependent on the flow regime
of the flow being monitored. They therefore cannot be
used in applications where the flow regime is unknown or
unstable.
Two approaches have been investigated to reduce the
flow regime dependency of such instruments. Merilo et al
(1977) devised a measurement system which consisted of
three pairs of electrodes spaced around the outside of the
pipe. By sequentially measuring the conductance between
each electrode and the three electrodes opposite, a rotating
field is produced within the sensor with the result that
some averaging of the measuring field occurs. Lucas
and Simonian (1991) also investigated the rotating field
technique, but using multi-electrode capacitance sensors
with oil–gas and oil–water flows. They showed that by
using this technique the maximum to minimum value of the
local electrostatic field sensitivity was reduced by a factor
of at least 40, thus reducing flow regime dependency. The
dynamic response of this type of sensor is worse than for a
simple electrode pair because of the averaging time required
to obtain repeatable component fraction measurements.
An alternative to the rotating field sensor is the helical
sensor. This technique uses spatial rather than an electrical
form of averaging to reduce flow regime dependency.
Although the sensor is of complex mechanical construction,
tests with air–water and air–oil flows (Albouelwafa and
Kendall 1979) and oil–water flows (Hammer et al 1989)
have shown that a flow regime independent calibration
is achievable. Water-in-oil flowmeters which use a
helical capacitance sensor are now commercially available.
Neither the rotating field nor the helical sensor technique
have yet been used as part of a commercial three-phase
flowmeter, however there is no reason why these techniques
should not be applicable to oil–water–gas flows.
5.3. Other methods
Apart from γ -ray attenuation and impedance techniques
there are a number of other methods which have been
used, or are being developed, for component fraction
measurement of oil–water–gas flows. The most promising
of these are microwave, PNA and NMR techniques.
All microwave component fraction methods are based
on the measurement of the dielectric properties of the
flowing mixture at microwave frequencies. This can be
achieved by measuring the amplitude change and phase
change of a microwave signal after it has passed through
the flow (Ashton et al 1994) or by using a resonant cavity
technique (Gainsford and Hide 1993). A limitation of
resonant cavity methods is that they cannot be used with
water continuous flows as the cavity will not resonate if
695
R Thorn et al

the conductivity of the mixture is too high. Although

microwave methods require more complex excitation and
detection circuitry than impedance methods, they have been
used successfully in a number of three-phase flowmeters.
The pulsed neutron activation (PNA) technique uses
a high-energy source of neutrons to irradiate the flowing
mixture. This irradiation of the flow causes gamma
radiation to be produced, and the spectra of this radiation
is related to the chemical composition and phase fractions
of the mixture. Either electrical or chemical generators
are used but both are complex and not yet suited to
applications in the field. The technology associated with
PNA is expensive, but this technique is not sensitive to
the flow regime and can be used to determine component
fractions over a wide range. Although no commercial
PNA multiphase flowmeter yet exists, the viability of the
technique has been demonstrated on a pilot plant (Bird
1995).
Although nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is a
well established technique for analysing multicomponent
mixtures in many areas of the process industry, the
potential of this technique for industrial flow measurement
applications has not yet been fully explored. In this
technique a magnetic field is applied to the flow to align
spin states of the nuclei in the mixture. The realignment
in spin states that takes place once the mixture has left the Figure 6. The cross correlation method of component
magnetic field is related to the chemical composition, and velocity measurement.
hence the phase fractions. Like PNA, NMR uses complex
and high-cost technology, but is inherently flow regime
independent and suitable for use over the complete range of where R̂xy (τ ) is the value of the cross-correlation function
fractions. Although NMR has yet to be demonstrated with when the upstream signal y(t) has been delayed by a time
oil–water–gas flows, Kruger et al (1996) have used this τ.
technique to measure the mass flowrate of a water–nitrogen The transit time of the flow between the two sensors
flow in a 42 mm diameter pipe. Accuracies of better than is usually found by observing the time lag τm at which the
±5% over a flow velocity range of 0.1 to 5 m s−1 have cross correlation function is a maximum. The velocity of
been reported. the tracer signal v can be found from:

6. Component velocity measurement
At present, the cross correlation technique is the most
commonly used component velocity measurement method
in three-phase flowmeters. However a number of other
techniques have been used or have potential for further
development.
6.1. Cross correlation method
The cross correlation technique is frequently used for
velocity measurement of multiphase flows (Beck and
Plaskowski 1987). The principle of this technique is shown
in figure 6. Two sensors are used to monitor the flow, one
being positioned downstream of the other. These sensors
are used to detect temporal variations in some property of
the flow such as density, permittivity or conductivity.
The time delay between the output signals of the two
sensors can be found by computing the cross correlation
function of these signals x(t) and y(t) over a measurement
period T. The cross correlation function is given by:
Z
1 T
R̂xy (τ ) = x(t)y(t − τ ) dt (6)
T 0
L
v= (7)
τm
where L is the sensor spacing.
This technique has been incorporated into three-phase
flowmeters using a variety of sensors such as microwave
(Økland and Berentsen 1994), γ -ray (Roach and Watt 1996)
and capacitance (Olsvik et al 1995). The accuracy of this
method depends on the validity of the relationship used to
connect the velocity inferred from the correlation function’s
peak position to the mean velocity of the flow. In the
case of an oil–water–gas flow, since what is actually being
measured is the velocity of one of the dispersed phases,
then if slip is present between the components measurement
errors will occur.
Two methods are currently used to reduce the velocity
measurement errors due to slip. The first is to homogenize
the flow upstream of the sensors, to try and ensure
that all components are travelling at the same velocity.
Traditional in-line mixers are not suitable for this, since
they cannot homogenize the flow over the wide fraction
ranges and velocity range that would be required in most
flow measurement applications. Hewitt et al (1995) have
used a mixer based on a twin-cell rotational principle and

696
 Recent developments in three-phase flow measurement

claim good homogenization over a velocity range of 2 to

6 m s−1 . The disadvantages of all in-line homogenization
methods are the increased pressure drop created by the
device, and the restriction it places on pigging operations.
Fluenta AS have used an alternative strategy to reduce
errors due to slip (Olsvik et al 1995). In this method
capacitance sensors are used to measure the velocity of the
gas phase. Two sets of sensors are used—one to measure
the velocity of large gas bubbles which is assumed to be the
velocity of the dispersed phase, and the second to measure
the velocity of the small gas bubbles which are assumed
to be travelling at the same velocity as the non-dispersed
liquid phase.
Watt et al (1991) have used dual-energy γ -ray sensors
to determine gas and liquid velocities. Cross correlation
of either the high- or low-energy γ -rays alone is used
to determine gas velocity, while cross correlation of the
combined signals can be used to determine the velocity of
the liquids as long as the mass fraction of gas is small
compared with that of the liquids. This technique has been
demonstrated experimentally and is being tested in the field. Figure 7. Example of a three-phase flowmeter which uses
Despite its limitations, the cross correlation technique is partial flow separation (courtesy of Agar Corporation Inc).
an important part of many three-phase flowmeters, and with
further research the measurement uncertainty associated The metering systems shown in table 1 can be classified
with this technique can be reduced. into three basic groups—those which partially separate the
flow before measurement, those which homogenize the flow
6.2. Other methods before measurement, and those which use no form of flow
pre-conditioning.
In situations where the flow is well mixed, single-phase
flowmeters such as the Venturi meter can be used to
7.1. Partial separation based systems
determine the mixture flowrate (Olsen 1993). Such
techniques must be used with care since any departure As their name suggests partial separation based measurement
from a totally homogenous flow will result in unpredictable systems partially separate the flow, usually into pre-
errors. dominantly liquid and predominantly gas streams, before
For instance, the pressure drop across a Venturi meter measurement. As a result, each flow stream then only needs
(1P ) can be used to determine liquid flowrate (QL ) in a to be measured over a limited range of component fractions.
liquid–gas flow if the gas fraction (α) and liquid density A number of techniques have been used to partially separate
(ρL ) are known (Hammer and Nordtvedt 1991): the flow including gravity separators and flow diverters.
s A commercially available example of this type of
(1 − α)1P system is the MPFM-400 which has been developed by
QL = . (8) Agar Corporation Inc and is shown in figure 7 (Tuss et
ρL
al 1996). In this flowmeter, the oil–water–gas mixture is
PNA and NMR techniques can be used to measure the separated into two streams, one mainly gas and one mainly
velocity of an individual component, but as yet these have liquid, using a fluidic diversion principle. A fluidic flow
only been investigated using two-phase flows in laboratory diverter diverts most of the free gas into a gas bypass
conditions (Newling et al 1996). loop. The volumetric flow rate of the wet gas stream
is measured with an accuracy of ±10% of reading using
a two-phase flowmeter. An algorithm is employed to
7. Three-phase flow metering systems measure the gas stream and correct for residual liquids.
The liquid stream, which may still contain a small amount
Table 1 gives an overview of three-phase flow metering of gas, is passed though a measurement section consisting
systems which are commercially available, or at an of a positive displacement flowmeter, Venturi meter and
advanced stage of development. Most of these systems microwave component fraction meter. The outputs of
use combinations of the phase fraction and phase velocity these three devices are combined to obtain the volumetric
measurement techniques described in sections 5 and 6. flowrate of the oil, water and gas components in the liquid
Each combination has its own advantages and limitations, stream (Colmenares et al 1995). Component volumetric
but because as yet there is no accepted way of defining the flowrates in the ‘liquid’ stream are measured with an
performance of a multiphase flowmeter, it is not possible uncertainty of better than ±2% of full scale. The gas and
to say which combination of techniques provides the ‘best’ liquid streams are recombined into a single stream before
solution. leaving the measurement system.

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R Thorn et al

Table 1. Three-phase flow metering systems.

Three-phase flow measurement system

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Component fraction measurement method
Single-energy γ -ray absorption – – – – ✓ – – – ✓ – ✓ – –
Multi-energy γ -ray absorption – – ✓ ✓ – ✓ – – – ✓ – – –
Impedance
(capacitance and/or resistance) – – – – ✓ – – ✓ – – ✓ – –
Microwave – ✓ – – – – – – ✓ – – ✓ –
Pulsed neutron activation (PNA) ✓ – – – – – – – – – – – –
Component velocity measurement method
Cross correlation – – ✓ – ✓ – – ✓ ✓ ✓ – – –
Venturi – ✓ – ✓ ✓ ✓ – – ✓ – ✓ – –
Pulsed neutron activation ✓ – – – – – – – – – – – –
Other – – – – – – – – – ✓ – – –
Other measurement methods
PD flowmeter—
mixture volumetric flowrate – ✓ – – – – ✓ – – – – – –
γ -ray densitometer—
mixture density – – – – – – ✓ – – – – – –
Single-phase gas meter – ✓ – – – – – – – – – ✓ ✓
Single-phase liquid meter – – – – – – – – – – – ✓ ✓
In-line mixture analysis – – – – – – – – – – – – ✓
Partial flow separation required No Yes No No No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes
Homogenized flow required No No No Yes No Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No No
Reference for further details a b c d e f g h i j k l m

Key reference for developing organisations

1 AEA Technology, UK. 2 Agar Corporation Incorporated, USA. 3 CSIRO, Australia. 4 Daniel Industries Incorporated,
USA/Shell. 5 Fluenta AS, Norway. 6 Framo Engineering AS, Norway. 7 ISA Controls, UK/BP. 8 Kongsberg Offshore AS,
Norway/Shell. 9 Multi-Fluid International AS, Norway. 10 SGS Redwood/Imperial College, UK. 11 Tecnomare/AGIP, Italy.
12 Texaco, USA. 13 WellComp, USA.
Key to references
a Bird (1995). b Tuss et al (1996). c Roach and Watt (1996). d Scheers and Letton (1996). e Olsvik et al (1995). f Hanssen
and Torkildsen (1995). g Priddy (1994). h Hatlo and Sten-Halvorsen (1995). i Økland and Berentsen (1994). j Hewitt et al
(1995). k Andreussi et al (1993). l Marrelli (1996). m Golike et al (1995).

This multiphase flowmeter is intended for use with
flows containing a high gas fraction. Tests have shown
that this instrument can measure oil, water and gas flow
rates with an uncertainty of better than ±10% of reading,
at gas fractions of up to 99.4%.
Other three-phase flowmeters which partially separate
the flow before measurement have been reported by Golike
et al (1995) and Andreussi et al (1993).
7.2. Homogenization based systems
In homogenization based systems the flow is pre-mixed
to try and ensure that all measurements are made with
a homogenous flow, thus removing the problem of flow
regime dependency.
An example of a commercially available three-phase
flowmeter which uses this strategy is shown in figure 8.
The Framo multiphase flowmeter uses a tank mixer to
homogenize the flow both radially and axially. The
homogenized flow then passes through a Venturi meter
which is used to measure the velocity of the mixture,
and a dual-energy γ -ray attenuation meter which uses
two different energy levels of the Barium 133 isotope to
determine the oil, water and gas fractions. The flowmeter
has been tested on a three-phase flowloop and on an
offshore installation. Oil and water flowrate was measured
to an uncertainty of better than ±5% of total flowrate over
the full fraction range. Gas fractions were measured to
an uncertainty of better than ±5% of total flowrate for
gas fractions less than 70%. Tests were performed over
a wide range of flow regimes (Olsen and Hanssen 1994).
This flowmeter has now been constructed for subsea use
(Hanssen and Torkildsen 1995).
Other three-phase flowmeters which homogenize the
flow include those reported by Hewitt et al (1995) and
Andreussi et al (1993). Although the measurement
uncertainty of systems such as these are not generally flow
regime dependent, the intrusive homogenization section
produces an increased pressure drop and causes difficulties
if the pipeline needs to be pigged.
7.3. Systems requiring no flow pre-conditioning
An example of a commercially available flowmeter which
requires no pre-conditioning of the flow is the Fluenta
1900VI (figure 9). This instrument uses a single-energy

698

Figure 8. Example of a three-phase flowmeter which uses
flow homogenization (courtesy of Framo Engineering AS).
γ -ray attenuation method combined with an electrical
capacitance sensor for oil continuous mixtures and a
conductivity sensor for water continuous mixtures to
measure component fractions of the flow. Both the cross
correlation technique and a Venturi meter are used to
measure component velocity. The flow regimes which can
flow through the meter are limited to bubble, churn, slug
and annular by restricting installation to vertical upwards
flow. Gas flowrate has been measured with an uncertainty
of ±10% of actual flowrate over gas fraction ranges of 30
to 60%, and 80 to 100%, with the uncertainty increasing
to ±15% over the range 60 to 80%. Total liquid flowrate
can be measured with a typical uncertainty of ±10%, and
water cut with a typical uncertainty of ±7% (Olsvik et al
1995). A version of this meter has recently been marinized
and installed for subsea operation in the South Scott field
(Hodgson 1996).
Other three-phase flowmeters which require no flow
pre-conditioning include those reported by Mehdizadeh and
Farchy (1995), Roach and Watt (1996) and Scheers and
Letton (1996).
Recent developments in three-phase flow measurement
Figure 9. Example of a three-phase flowmeter which uses
neither flow separation nor homogenization (courtesy of
Fluenta AS).
8. Future developments
A considerable amount of effort has been devoted towards
the development of an oil–water–gas flowmeter over the
past ten years. A number of commercial three-phase
flowmeters now exist, with more on the way, but the target
uncertainty of ±5% of reading over all fraction ranges
and flow regimes has yet to be reached. Current solutions
use a combination of measurements to determine the mass
flowrate of the oil, water and gas fractions, and the product
of errors makes a total measurement uncertainty of only a
few per cent difficult to achieve using this strategy.
Techniques such as NMR and PNA which can measure
phase velocity and fraction directly have potential for
development, but their complexity and cost are substantial
barriers which will need to be overcome if they are to be
suitable for use in the field.
Process tomography is an area which has seen a
significant growth over the last five years, with imaging
systems having been developed for many two-phase flow
applications (Plaskowski et al 1995). However, although
three-phase imaging has recently been demonstrated using
699
R Thorn et al
microwave techniques (Constant and Falcimaigne 1995),
it is not clear whether such techniques could be used
to measure component flowrate any more accurately than
existing solutions.
Finally, now that commercial three-phase flowmeters
exist, other areas that will need further development in the
near future are performance specification, standardization
and in situ calibration. The last of these may prove to be
as difficult as the development of the meter itself.
A universal three-phase flowmeter is still a long way
off, but the light at the end of the tunnel is becoming
steadily brighter.
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