Optimization of a conductance probe with vertical multi-electrode array for the measurement of oil-water two-phase flow

This paper proposes a conductance probe with vertical multiple electrode array (VMEA), which can be used in oil-in-water two-phase pipe flow to measure the water volume fraction and axial velocity. The electrodes are flush mounted axially on the inside wall of an insulating duct. Using finite element analysis method, the evaluating indicators of uniform degree spatial sensitivity and information volume were used to investigate the performance of the VMEA. The optimized VMEA has enhanced spatial sensitivity and capability of obtaining the distributed information from two-phase flow. Due to the significant difference of conductance between oil and water, the VMEA can also be used to measure gas-liquid and liquid-solid two-phase flow with conductive continuous phase. The evaluating indicators used in this paper can be used extensively to investigate other types of conductive probe.