Flowrate measurement of air-water two-phase flow with double-cone flowmeter

A differential pressure flowmeter with double-cone structure was designed and employed to measure air-water two-phase flow. Five double-cone flowmeters with different equivalent diameter ratios of 0.840, 0.780, 0.697, 0.586 and 0.424 were manufactured and their measurement characteristics were analyzed. Experiments were carried out for the flowrate measurement of the air-water two-phase flow on a horizontal multiphase flow facility by using this flowmeter. A good linear relationship between the prospective gas flow ratio and the Lockhart-Martinelli number was investigated through analysis of the experimental data. Total mass flowrate model of double-cone flowmeter for air-water two-phase flow was established based on the Bizon model. The James model, separated flow model, Murdock model and Lin model were also applied to measure total mass flowrate of the air-water two-phase flow, and the measurement errors were analyzed and compared. The experimental results show that the total mass flowrate measurement error of the proposed model can be within 6% by using the new double-cone flowmeters. Compared with other models, the proposed model is more suitable for the double-cone flowmeter.