Data analysis for the classification of gas-liquid and liquid-solid (slurry) flows using digital signal processing

• Author / Creator

  Fedon S., Roberto J

• The Canadian oil sand industry operates three phase gas-liquid-solid hydrotransport pipelines to transport oil sand ore from mines to processing facilities. This hydrotransport process is critical to downstream separation activities, given the conditioning steps that occur within it: (i) lump ablation, (ii) bitumen liberation and (iii) bitumen-air attachment. Achieving the appropriate hydrodynamic conditions within the pipe to promote the conditioning steps has been a challenge. Although operational targets are known, e.g. suspended solids and dispersed bubble flow, determining and furthermore monitoring online behaviour has not been satisfactorily achieved. To solve this, a novel modelling technique using digital signal processing was developed, and tested on gas-liquid and liquid-solid horizontal flows. Results show the model accurately describes the existence and transition between dispersed bubble and intermittent flows in the gas-liquid system. For slurry flow, the model accurately distinguishes a moving bed from a suspended flow, but does not describe the transition.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Slurry
  • Classification
  • Gas-liquid
  • Two-phase
  • Partial least squares
  • Signal processing
  • Wavelets

• Graduation date

  Spring 2013

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3G59B

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.