Application of ANN and PCA to two-phase flow evaluation using radioisotopes

In the two-phase flow measurements a method involving the absorption of gamma radiation can be applied among others. Analysis of the signals from the scintillation probes can be used to determine the number of flow parameters and to recognize flow structure. Three types of flow regimes as plug, bubble, and transitional plug – bubble flows were considered in this work. The article shows how features of the signals in the time and frequency domain can be used to build the artificial neural network (ANN) to recognize the structure of the gas-liquid flow in a horizontal pipeline. In order to reduce the number of signal features the principal component analysis (PCA) was used. It was found that the reduction of signals features allows for building a network with better performance

Application of spectral analysis in radiometric measurements of twophase liquid-gas flow

This article presents use of the classical spectral analysis to identify a type of flow in investigation of gas transportation by liquid with a measurement of gamma radiation absorption. During numerous experiments it was found that a magnitude of the cross-spectral density distribution of recording signals reveals type of air-water mixture flow in a horizontal pipeline. As an example, some results of laboratory measurements equipped in 241Am radiation source and scintillation probes with of NaI(Tl) crystals are presented. Moreover attached figures facilitate interpretation of observed results and in details illustrating the proposed method

Application of spectral analysis in radiometric measurements of twophase liquid-gas flow

This article presents use of the classical spectral analysis to identify a type of flow in investigation of gas transportation by liquid with a measurement of gamma radiation absorption. During numerous experiments it was found that a magnitude of the cross-spectral density distribution of recording signals reveals type of air-water mixture flow in a horizontal pipeline. As an example, some results of laboratory measurements equipped in 241Am radiation source and scintillation probes with of NaI(Tl) crystals are presented. Moreover attached figures facilitate interpretation of observed results and in details illustrating the proposed method

Time Delay Estimation in Two-Phase Flow Investigation Using the γ

Time delay estimation is an important research question having many applications in a range of technologies. Measurement of a two-phase flow in a pipeline or an open channel using radioisotopes is an example of such application. For instance, the determination of velocity of dispersed phase in that case is based on estimation of the time delay between two stochastic signals provided by scintillation probes. The proper analysis of such signals, usually in presence of noise, requires the use of advanced statistical signal processing. In this paper, the simulation studies of time delay estimation were carried out with the use of the following differential methods: average magnitude difference function, and average square difference function and proposed combined methods comprising the above-mentioned differential and cross-correlation functions are presented. Attached simulations have been carried out for models of stochastic signals corresponding to the signals obtained in gamma-ray absorption measurements of gas-liquid flow in a horizontal pipeline. The standard uncertainties of time delay estimations have been determined for each of the methods. Improved metrological properties have been stated in the combined methods in comparison with the classical cross-correlation procedure

Velocity measurements of the liquid - gas flow using gamma absorption and modified conditional averaging

The paper presents idea and an exemplary application of gamma-absorption in the measurement of gas bubbles transportation in a gas-liquid mixture flow through a horizontal pipeline. In the tests on laboratory installation two 241Am radioactive sources and probes with NaI(Tl) scintillation crystals have been used. For analysis of electrical signals obtained from detectors the modified conditional averaging of the absolute value of delayed signal (CAAV) is proposed. The proposed method is based on the quotient of classical cross-correlation (CCF) and CAAV. Results of the time delay estimation and gas-phase velocity measurements are compared with one obtained using CCF. The combined uncertainties of the mean velocity of air bubbles evaluation in the presented experiment did not exceed 2.1% (CCF) and 1.7% (CCF/CAAV), which is a satisfactory result in industrial applications

Velocity measurements of the liquid - gas flow using gamma absorption and modified conditional averaging

The paper presents idea and an exemplary application of gamma-absorption in the measurement of gas bubbles transportation in a gas-liquid mixture flow through a horizontal pipeline. In the tests on laboratory installation two 241Am radioactive sources and probes with NaI(Tl) scintillation crystals have been used. For analysis of electrical signals obtained from detectors the modified conditional averaging of the absolute value of delayed signal (CAAV) is proposed. The proposed method is based on the quotient of classical cross-correlation (CCF) and CAAV. Results of the time delay estimation and gas-phase velocity measurements are compared with one obtained using CCF. The combined uncertainties of the mean velocity of air bubbles evaluation in the presented experiment did not exceed 2.1% (CCF) and 1.7% (CCF/CAAV), which is a satisfactory result in industrial applications

Methods of measurement signal acquisition from the rotational flow meter for frequency analysis

One of the simplest and commonly used instruments for measuring the flow of homogeneous substances is the rotational flow meter. The main part of such a device is a rotor (vane or screw) rotating at a speed which is the function of the fluid or gas flow rate. A pulse signal with a frequency proportional to the speed of the rotor is obtained at the sensor output. For measurements in dynamic conditions, a variable interval between pulses prohibits the analysis of the measuring signal. Therefore, the authors of the article developed a method involving the determination of measured values on the basis of the last inter-pulse interval preceding the moment designated by the timing generator. For larger changes of the measured value at a predetermined time, the value can be determined by means of extrapolation of the two adjacent interpulse ranges, assuming a linear change in the flow. The proposed methods allow analysis which requires constant spacing between measurements, allowing for an analysis of the dynamics of changes in the test flow, eg. using a Fourier transform. To present the advantages of these methods simulations of flow measurement were carried out with a DRH-1140 rotor flow meter from the company Kobold

Determination of volumetric concentration of solids in vertical pipeline hydrotransport

This paper presents an application of radioisotopes with reference to the determination of the solid phase volumetric concentration in a hydromixture by calibration of the measuring set. It shows how the gamma absorption equipment consisting of radioactive isotopes 241Am and scintillation probe, may be applied to the measurement of solid particles volumetric concentration in a flow. It is based on fact that the intensity of a gamma beam decreases as it passes through matter. In the described experiments as solid phase the ceramic models representing natural polymetallic ocean nodules were used. The especially constructed calibration stand and obtained relation between the related intensity of radiation and mean volumetric concentration of the solid phase are presented

Signals features extraction in liquid-gas flow measurements using gamma densitometry. Part 2: frequency domain

Knowledge of the structure of a flow is really significant for the proper conduct a number of industrial processes. In this case a description of a two-phase flow regimes is possible by use of the time-series analysis e.g. in frequency domain. In this article the classical spectral analysis based on Fourier Transform (FT) and Short-Time Fourier Transform (STFT) were applied for analysis of signals obtained for water-air flow using gamma ray absorption. The presented method was illustrated by use data collected in experiments carried out on the laboratory hydraulic installation with a horizontal pipe of 4.5 m length and inner diameter of 30 mm equipped with two 241Am radioactive sources and scintillation probes with NaI(Tl) crystals. Stochastic signals obtained from detectors for plug, bubble, and transitional plug – bubble flows were considered in this work. The recorded raw signals were analyzed and several features in the frequency domain were extracted using autospectral density function (ADF), cross-spectral density function (CSDF), and the STFT spectrogram. In result of a detail analysis it was found that the most promising to recognize of the flow structure are: maximum value of the CSDF magnitude, sum of the CSDF magnitudes in the selected frequency range, and the maximum value of the sum of selected amplitudes of STFT spectrogram

Graphene field-effect transistor application for flow sensing

Microflow sensors offer great potential for applications in microfluidics and lab-on-a-chip systems. However, thermal-based sensors, which are commonly used in modern flow sensing technology, are mainly made of materials with positive temperature coefficients (PTC) and suffer from a self-heating effect and slow response time. Therefore, the design of novel devices and careful selection of materials are required to improve the overall flow sensor performance. In this work we propose graphene field-effect transistor (GFET) to be used as microflow sensor. Temperature distribution in graphene channel was simulated and the analysis of heat convection was performed to establish the relation between the fluidic flow velocity and the temperature gradient. It was shown that the negative temperature coefficient (NTC) of graphene could enable the self-protection of the device and should minimize sensing error from currentinduced heating. It was also argued that the planar design of the GFET sensor makes it suitable for the real application due to supposed mechanical stability of such a construction