Online Voidage Measurement of Two-Phase Flow Based on the Ant System Algorithm

Based on the 12-electrode electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) system and the ant system algorithm (ASA), a new method was proposed for online voidage measurement of oil-gas two-phase flow. In practical voidage measurement, based on the 66 measurement capacitances obtained from the ECT system, the real-time flow pattern of oil-gas two-phase flow was first identified. Then, according to the flow pattern identification result, an appropriate measurement model was selected, and the measurement voidage value was calculated. The measurement models related to the flow pattern were developed in advance using the ASA. Static and dynamic experimental results show that the proposed voidage measurement method is effective. Moreover, the real-time performance and measurement accuracy are satisfactory.