Capacitance Sensors for Void-Fraction Measurements and Flow-Pattern Identification in Air–Oil Two-Phase Flow

The design methodology of capacitance sensors for void-fraction measurement in adiabatic two-phase flow systems is presented in this paper. The effect of design parameters on the capacitance output has been theoretically and experimentally investigated for two types of sensor configurations: concave and ring types. Experiments were performed using air–oil two-phase flow to determine the signal-to-noise ratio, sensitivity, and time response of the capacitance sensors. The results show that the ring-type sensors are more sensitive to the void-fraction signal than the concave type for the same spatial resolution. The predictions from the theoretical model for the ring-type sensors are in better agreement with the experimental results than for the concave type. The mean value, time trace, power spectral density (PSD), and the probability density function (PDF) of the void-fraction signal from the capacitance sensors are used to objectively identify the flow pattern. The method was validated using high-speed video images of the flow and comparing the results to those from the signal analysis.