Application of capacitance sensors for monitoring oil-water separation processes

Artur J. Jaworski, Tomasz Dyakowski, Graham A. Davies

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

This paper describes the construction and experimental evaluation of a novel capacitance based instrument for monitoring oil-water separation processes. The electronic circuitry to measure the electrical capacitance, originally developed by UMIST for tomographic applications, is based on the charge-discharge principle. The evaluation of the developed system took place in the existing transparent oil-water separator in the Pilot Plant facility at UMIST. During the experiments, the dynamic behaviour of the multiphase flow within the packed bed of inclined separator plates has been monitored in-situ and on-line for various total flow rates as well as varying oil/water ratios in the mixture. The applied capacitance sensor enabled the measurement of the thickness of oil and water layers along the length of the separator plates as well as the emulsion phase, which is a critical parameter from the viewpoint of the separator's efficiency.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)429-437
Number of pages9
JournalAmerican Society of Mechanical Engineers, Heat Transfer Division, (Publication) HTD
Volume361-5
Publication statusPublished - 1 Dec 1998
Externally publishedYes

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