Department of Geophysics, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, USA.
Department of Petroleum Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, USA.
Sensors (Basel). 2022 Feb 7;22(3):1266. doi: 10.3390/s22031266.
Slug flow is one of the most common flow types encountered in surface facilities, pipelines, and wellbores. The intermittent gas phase, in the form of a Taylor bubble, followed by the liquid phase can be destructive to equipment. However, commonly used point flow sensors have significant limitations for flow analysis. Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) can turn optical fibers into an array of distributed strain rate sensors and provide substantial insights into flow characterization. We built a 10 m vertical laboratory flow loop equipped with wrapped fiber optic cables to study the DAS response of rising Taylor bubbles. Low-passed DAS data allow for velocity tracking of Taylor bubbles of different sizes and water velocities. Moreover, we measured the velocity of the wake region following the Taylor bubble and explored the process of Taylor bubbles merging. The amplitude analysis of DAS data allows for the estimation of Taylor bubble size. We conclude that DAS is a promising tool for understanding Taylor bubble properties in a laboratory environment and monitoring destructive flow in facilities across different industries to ensure operations are safe and cost-effective.
slug 流是在地面设施、管道和井筒中最常见的流动类型之一。以泰勒气泡形式间歇性出现的气相，随后是液相，可能会对设备造成破坏。然而，常用的点流量传感器在流量分析方面有很大的局限性。分布式声学传感 (DAS) 可以将光纤变成分布式应变速率传感器阵列，并为流动特性提供深入的了解。我们建造了一个 10 米高的垂直实验室流动回路，配备了包裹光纤电缆，以研究上升的泰勒气泡的 DAS 响应。低通 DAS 数据允许跟踪不同大小和水速的泰勒气泡的速度。此外，我们测量了泰勒气泡后面的尾流区域的速度，并探索了泰勒气泡合并的过程。DAS 数据的幅度分析可以估计泰勒气泡的大小。我们得出结论，DAS 是一种很有前途的工具，可以在实验室环境中了解泰勒气泡的特性，并监测不同行业设施中的破坏性流动，以确保操作安全且具有成本效益。
