Multimodal sensor suite for identification of flow regimes and estimation of phase fractions and velocities – Machine Learning Algorithms in Multiphase flow metering and Control

Abstract

Multiphase flow metering is a challenging task because of the complexity of multiphase flow. In this paper, nonintrusive multiphase flow metering techniques, including machine learning (ML) / artificial intelligence models for the identification of flow regimes and estimation of flow parameters of a two-phase flow in a horizontal pipe are proposed that use data from Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT) and conventional measurements such as differential pressure in the pipe. The flow regimes are classified into five types, namely plug, slug, annular, wavy and stratified. Two-phase air/water flow experimental data from ECT are collected by running extensive experiments using the horizontal section of the multiphase flow rig at the University of South-Eastern Norway (USN). Exploratory data analysis (EDA) is performed on these data to extract features for use in classification and regression algorithms. Time series of normalized capacitance data from ECT sensors are used to classify flow regimes and identify flow parameters. ML techniques of Artificial Neural Network, Support Vector Machine (SVM), K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN) and Decision Tree (DT) are used to classify flow regimes by using features extracted from ECT data. The cross-correlation technique is used to estimate flow velocity using data from a twinplane ECT module. ML regression techniques are used to estimate phase fractions. Fusing data from differential pressure sensors enhances the flow regime classification. An overall system performance is given with suggestions for designing dedicated control algorithms for actuators used in multiphase flow control.