The problem of how to accurately measure the flowrate of oil–gas–water mixtures in a pipeline remains one of the key challenges in the petroleum industry. This paper discusses why three-phase flow measurement is still important and why it remains a difficult problem to solve. The measurement strategies and principal base technologies currently used by commercial manufacturers are described, and research developments that could influence future flowmeter design are considered. Finally, future issues, which will need to be addressed by manufacturers and users of three-phase flowmeters, are discussed.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0957-0233/24/1/012003/pdf

Three-phase flow measurement in the petroleum industry

Over the last two decades, water smart metering programs have been launched in a number of medium to large cities worldwide to nearly continuously monitor water consumption at the single household level. The availability of data at such very high spatial and temporal resolution advanced the ability in characterizing, modeling, and, ultimately, designing user-oriented residential water demand management strategies. Research to date has been focusing on one or more of these aspects but with limited integration between the specialized methodologies developed so far. This manuscript is the first comprehensive review of the literature in this quickly evolving water research domain. The paper contributes a general framework for the classification of residential water demand modeling studies, which allows revising consolidated approaches, describing emerging trends, and identifying potential future developments. In particular, the future challenges posed by growing population demands, constrained sources of water supply and climate change impacts are expected to require more and more integrated procedures for effectively supporting residential water demand modeling and management in several countries across the world. We review high resolution residential water demand modeling studies.We provide a classification of existing technologies and methodologies.We identify current trends, challenges and opportunities for future development.

/pdf/benefits-and-challenges-of-using-smart-meters-for-advancing-3nblgijm2n.pdf

Benefits and challenges of using smart meters for advancing residential water demand modeling and management

Water is nature's most precious resource and growing demand is pushing fresh water supplies to the brink of non-renewability. New technological and social initiatives that enhance conservation and reduce waste are needed. Providing consumers with fine-grained real-time information has yielded benefits in conservation of power and gasoline. Extending this philosophy to water conservation, we introduce a novel water monitoring system, NAWMS, that similarly empowers users.The goal of our work is to furnish users with an easy-to-install self-calibrating system that provides information on when, where, and how much water they are using. The system uses wireless vibration sensors attached to pipes and, thus, neither plumbing nor special expertise is necessary for its installation. By implementing a non-intrusive, autonomous, and adaptive system using commodity hardware, we believe it is cost-effective and widely deployable.NAWMS makes use of the existing household water flow meter, which is considered accurate, but lacks spatial granularity, and adds vibration sensors on individual water pipes to estimate the water flow to each individual outlet. Compensating for manufacturing, installation, and material variabilities requires calibration of these low cost sensors to achieve a reasonable level of accuracy. We have devised an adaptive auto-calibration procedure, which attempts to solve a two phase linear programming and mixed linear geometric programming problem.We show through experiments on a three pipe testbed that such a system is indeed feasible and adapts well to minimize error in the water usage estimate. We report an accuracy, over likely domestic flow-rate scenarios, with long-term stability and a mean absolute error of 7%.

/pdf/nawms-nonintrusive-autonomous-water-monitoring-system-17o5tn6kta.pdf

NAWMS: nonintrusive autonomous water monitoring system

This first technical session is further developing the technological dimensions of technology transfer, with three illustrations of successful and representative industrial applications. It covers the cases of embedded autonomy in spacecraft applications, advanced avionics solutions for satellite communication and component hybridization for navigation.

Industrial applications

An object of the present invention is to perform a suitable registration of a flow rate of appliances to promote the optimization of a usage time limitation function. In a gas shut-off device according to the invention, a flow rate detection unit measures a flow rate, a flow rate calculation unit calculates values of instant flow rates from a detection value, an average flow rate calculation unit obtains an average flow rate from the obtained instant flow rates, a flow rate change decision unit decides the presence or absence of a change in the flow rate based on the obtained average flow rate, a flow rate storage unit stores a value of the obtained average flow rate, an increase flow rate registration unit registers an amount of the flow rate change at the time of increase change decision by the flow rate change decision unit, a decrease flow rate re-registration unit reduces the registered flow rate near an amount of the flow rate change at the time of decrease change decision by the flow rate change decision unit, and re-registers and replaces it with a value of the average flow rate obtained by the average flow rate calculation unit after the reduction of the registered flow rate, and a shut-off unit shuts off the supply of gas when decided as an abnormality by an abnormality decision unit from the registered flow rate and a decision value.

Gas shut-off device

This paper presents a new estimation method to determine the optimal number of transducers using an Ultrasonic Velocity Profile (UVP) for accurate flow rate measurement downstream of a single elbow. Since UVP can measure velocity profiles over a pipe diameter and calculate the flow rate by integrating these velocity profiles, it is also expected to obtain an accurate flow rate using multiple transducers under nondeveloped flow conditions formed downstream of an elbow. The new estimation method employs a wave number of velocity profile fluctuations along a circle on a pipe cross-section using Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). The optimal number of transducers is estimated based on the sampling theorem. To evaluate this method, a preliminary experiment and numerical simulations using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) are conducted. The evaluating regions of velocity profiles are located at 3 times of a pipe diameter () for the experiment, and 1 and for the simulations downstream of an elbow, respectively. Reynolds numbers for the experiment and simulations are set at and , respectively. These results indicate the efficiency of this new method.

https://downloads.hindawi.com/journals/stni/2012/464313.pdf

Study on the Optimal Number of Transducers for Pipe Flow Rate Measurement Downstream of a Single Elbow Using the Ultrasonic Velocity Profile Method

Control valves of the main steam flow for power plants are operated under wide range of valve openings and pressure ratios. In the present paper, experimental and numerical investigations are described in order to clarify mechanisms of the valve head vibration. Experiments are conducted with two types of the valve head support. One is a flexible support and the other one is with an exciter. Results show that valve head vibrations with large amplitude appear with the flexibly supported valve head under certain range of valve openings and the pressure ratio. With the valve head exciter, dynamic fluid forces are measured. Results show that the added damping force becomes negative around the condition where the valve head oscillation is observed with flexible support. Numerical analyses are carried out in order to observe the flow field. In the simulations, forced vibrations of valve head are assumed. Results show that the pressure distribution on the valve head surface changes depending on the excitation frequencies, and as a result, the negative damping force occurs.Copyright © 2010 by ASME

Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Flow Induced Vibration of Steam Control Valve

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an abnormality diagnostic method of a rotating machine allowing quantitative and accurate diagnosis of an abnormality caused by abrasion of a bearing. SOLUTION: At least two vibration detectors are disposed in a casing of a machine body with phase shifted circulferentially of a rotating shaft, frequencies of vibration waveforms simultaneously detected by respective vibration detectors are analyzed. Regarding to the vibration waveforms, vibration amplitude in a frequency band region including frequency regions before and after a rotation frequency and a phase at the rotation frequency wave number of the other vibration waveform with reference to the vibration waveform with the largest vibration amplitude are determined. Each vibration vector 32 of the other vibration detector is determined based on the determined vibration amplitude and the phase, each changing vector 33 of a difference between a reference vibration vector 31 predetermined in a normal state and each vibration vector 32 is determined, and the changing vector 33 is compared with a predetermined discrimination reference 34. Thus, certainty of abnormality occurrence of the bearing is discriminated quantitatively.

Abnormality diagnostic method of rotating machine

/pdf/accurate-flowrate-measurement-on-the-double-bent-pipe-using-4uomvic1oz.pdf

Accurate Flowrate Measurement on the Double Bent Pipe using Ultrasonic Velocity Profile Method

[OBJECT] To accurately measure a flow by reducing a specified error when the position of the inner wall of a fluid pipe is specified by using the calculated results of a flow velocity distribution in an ultrasonic flow meter. [CONSTITUTION] In the ultrasonic flow meter, a fluid velocity distribution measurement means comprises a graph output means for outputting a flow velocity distribution graph indicating the flow velocity distribution which uses, as two axes, the position of the fluid pipe on a measurement line in the inner diameter direction and a corresponding fluid velocity in the inner diameter direction and an inner wall position calculation means calculating the position of the inner wall relative to an axis in the inner diameter direction. A flow calculation means measures the flow of the measured fluid by an integration calculation based on the position of the inner wall calculated by the inner wall position calculation means.

Kenichi Tezuka

Papers

Study on the Optimal Number of Transducers for Pipe Flow Rate Measurement Downstream of a Single Elbow Using the Ultrasonic Velocity Profile Method

Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Flow Induced Vibration of Steam Control Valve

Abnormality diagnostic method of rotating machine

Accurate Flowrate Measurement on the Double Bent Pipe using Ultrasonic Velocity Profile Method

Ultrasonic flow meter, flow measurement method, and computer program