Electrical impedance characteristics of gas-liquid two-phase flow from the tomographic perspective

Capacitively coupled electrical impedance tomography (CCEIT) is a new electrical tomography (ET) technique for monitoring the conductive gas-liquid two-phase flow, which exploits the imaginary and real parts of the fluid impedance. Although earlier studies revealed that using both the two parts is a beneficial approach to enhance the image reconstruction quality, the measured two parts may be sensitive to the variations in the conductivity of the liquid phase and the flow patterns. Investigating the characteristics of fluid impedance is crucial for optimizing the data utilization and enhancing the imaging performance of CCEIT. This article aims to investigate the electrical impedance characteristics of the conductive gas-liquid two-phase flow from the tomographic perspective. By the simulation study, the fluid impedance characteristics in response to the fluid variations, and the contributions of the two parts to the imaging results are revealed. The results show that under different fluid conditions, the two parts show different imaging performance, which is closely related to the conductivity of the fluid and the flow pattern. It is indicated that in practical applications, the contributions of these two parts need to be determined based on specific fluid conditions to achieve better imaging results.