Apparatus and method for determining a parameter in a wet gas flow

1. An apparatus for measuring a parameter of a wet gas flow, the apparatus comprising:

a gamma densitometer configured to non-intrusively measure the density of a gas flow traveling through a conduit;

a sonar based flow meter configured to non-intrusively determine a flow rate of the wet gas flow traveling through said conduit; and

a processing device communicated with at least one of said gamma densitometer and said sonar based flow meter, wherein said processing device is configured to determine liquid and/or gas flow rates of the wet gas flow using the measured density and flow rate of the wet gas flow.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said gamma densitometer and said sonar based flow-meter are clamped onto said conduit.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said sonar based flow meter includes an array of at least three strain-based sensors.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said sonar based flow meter includes an ultrasonic sonar flow meter.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said gamma densitometer is disposed in at least one of an upstream location and a downstream location from said sonar based flow meter.

6. A method of measuring a parameter of a wet gas flow, the method comprising:

non-intrusively determining a mixture density of a wet gas flow traveling through a conduit responsive to changes in radiation transmitted through the wet gas flow;

non-intrusively determining a flow rate of the wet gas flow traveling through said conduit responsive to the unsteady pressures caused by coherent structures convecting with the wet gas flow; and

processing said mixture density and said flow rate to determine a flow rate of a liquid phase of the wet gas flow and/or a flow rate of a gas phase of the wet gas flow.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein said step of non-intrusively determining includes non-intrusively determining said mixture density via a gamma densitometer.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein said step of non-intrusively determining includes non-intrusively determining said flow rate via at least one sonar based flow meter.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein said at least one sonar based flow meter is an ultrasonic sonar flow meter.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein prior to said steps of non-intrusively determining a density and non-intrusively determining a volumetric flow rate, said method includes the step of clamping said gamma densitometer and said sonar based flow meter onto said conduit.

11. The method of claim 6 , wherein said step of non-intrusively determining includes non-intrusively determining said flow rate using signals from an array of sensors disposed at different axial locations along a length of the pipe, wherein said signals are responsive to said unsteady pressures caused by coherent structures convecting with the gas flow.

12. The method of claim 6 wherein said step of processing includes processing said mixture density and said flow rate of the wet gas flow to determine a flow rate for the liquid and gas phases of the wet gas flow responsive to,

V liq =V sonar φ liq , and

V gas =V sonar φ gas , where

V liq is the flow rate of the liquid phase of the wet gas flow, V gas is the flow rate of the gas phase of the wet gas flow, V sonar is the flow rate of the wet gas flow, φ liq is the liquid volume fraction and φ gas is the gas volume fraction of the wet gas flow.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein said processing includes processing said mixture density (ρ mix ) to determine liquid hold-up (α liq ), α liq being related to ρ mix by the relationship,

ρ mix =α liq ρ liq +α gas ρ gas ,

where

α gas =1−α liq ;

and where

ρ liq is the density of a liquid phase of the wet gas flow, α gas is gas hold-up of the wet gas flow, and ρ gas is the density of the gas phase of the wet gas flow.

14. The method of claim 12 wherein M is determined by the relationship:

M= 0.79+0.41 Fr , where

Fr is the Froude number and is determined by

Fr

≡

(

ρ

gas

ρ

liq

-

ρ

gas

)

⁢

V

Sonar

gD

 where V sonar is the flow rate of the wet gas flow, ρ gas is the gas density, ρ liq is the liquid density and gD is the force of gravity multiplied by the inner diameter of the conduit.

15. The method of claim 14 where the liquid volume fraction φ liq is related to M by the relationship,

ϕ

liq

=

α

liq

1

-

M

.

16. The method of claim 15 where the liquid volume fraction φ liq is related to the gas volume fraction φ gas by the relationship,

1=φ liq +φ gas .

17. An apparatus for measuring a parameter of a wet gas flow, the apparatus comprising:

a first metering device for non-intrusively measuring a mixture density, wherein said first metering device is configured to determine a first characteristic of the wet gas flow, said first characteristic being sensitive to wetness of the wet gas flow;

a second metering device, wherein said second metering device is configured to non-intrusively determine a second characteristic of the wet gas flow, said second characteristic being relatively insensitive to wetness of the wet gas flow; and

a processing device communicated with at least one of said first metering device and said second metering device, wherein said processing device is configured to determine the parameter of the wet gas flow using said first and second characteristic.