3D CFD Simulation of Phase Resonance in a Pump Turbine with an Acoustic Model

In order to understand the complex nature of the system dynamic phenomena, such as the strong vibration and noise caused by blade passage in the pump turbine, a state-of-the-art three-dimensional (3D) compressible transient simulation would be desirable to study the problem in depth. This study investigated the phase resonance (PR) that occurred during a full-load operation in the turbine mode of a pump turbine on a prototype scale. As a first step, the wave reflection at the boundaries, and the influence of the timestep and sound speeds on the behavior of traveling pressure waves inside a spiral casing, were studied. It was found that nonreflective boundary conditions and an appropriately small timestep are critical to capturing the wave reflection and superposition process inside a spiral casing; a certain kind of direct PR risk was detected in its system design. The detected direct PR differed from the well-known PR with two features: firstly, it was almost independent of the sound speeds, and secondly, the pressure distribution over the spiral circumference varied among the amplitudes. The latter feature was caused by pressure waves at every stator channel induced by a rotor stator interaction (RSI). The 3D flow simulation with an acoustic model, which couples the RSI and PR phenomena, would predict better results for understanding the problem than the simplified one-dimensional (1D) method.

Flow Measurement Optimization Using Surface Measurements and Downhole Sound Speed Measurements from Local or Distributed Acoustic Sensors

Summary The litmus test for downhole multiphase flowmeters is to compare the measured phase flow rates with the rates from a test separator or other surface measurement systems. In most cases, the composition of the measurand is required for flowmeters. This is typically obtained from bottomhole fluid samples. Extracting and analyzing fluid samples is an expensive process mostly done at the initial stages of field development. In some cases, the composition may be old or unavailable, leading to subpar flowmeter performance compared to surface systems. In this work, it is shown that when the data from a surface system such as a test separator are used in conjunction with the mixture sound speed measured downhole, it is possible to optimize a downhole multiphase flowmeter system without obtaining new fluid samples. The optimization process is independent of the downhole measurement device because the required flow-velocity and sound-speed measurements may be obtained from separate devices. For example, the fluid bulk velocity and mixture sound speed can be measured by a local measurement device and a distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) system, respectively. The main challenge in a flow-velocity/sound-speed measurement system is determining individual phase sound speeds so that the mixture phase fraction can be correctly determined using Wood’s mixture sound speed model. The phase fraction from the separator tests can be used as the target value to optimize the performance of the system. The system has two operation modes. In optimization mode, the individual phase sound speeds are calculated backward using the predicted phase fractions from surface measurements. Pressure and temperature variations at measurement locations, as well as pipe compliance effects, are accounted for during the process. After the adjustment of individual phase sound speeds, steady-state operation mode takes over, and a forward calculation is implemented using the same model. The final phase fraction agrees well with the actual value and can be improved further with an iterative approach. This novel method is demonstrated in a North Sea case history. A downhole optical flowmeter in a North Sea field measured mixture velocity and sound speed. Well-test results indicated that water cut from the flowmeter was underreported and phase flow rates did not match test-separator rates. Instead of halting production and going through a fluid sample analysis cycle, the test-separator water cut was used as the target value to optimize oil phase sound speed using Wood’s model in the optimization mode. The difference between the initial and optimized oil sound speeds was extrapolated to other pressure and temperature conditions, and steady-state operation mode showed that separator tests and flowmeter measurements closely matched. Subsequent flowmeter and test-separator data confirmed excellent agreement. Using surface measurements and downhole mixture sound speed to optimize phase flow rates is a novel method that has not been previously demonstrated. This method is independent of device type, is broadly applicable, and improves the understanding of multiphase flow measurement.

ANALYSIS OF SOUND SPEED IN LONGITUDINAL DIRECTION AT REFERENCE MOISTURE CONTENT (w = 12 %) IN SAWMILL ASSORTMENTS (FAGUS SYLVATICA, L.)

This paper explores the analysis of sound speeds in the longitudinal direction and their reduction to the reference moisture content w = 12 %. The sound speed cw was determined with Sylvatest Duo device. Moisture content of beech sawmill assortments (round timber: N = 16, logs: N = 2 × 16, structural boards: N = 54) in the range of 12 – 72 % was measured. For the analysis purposes, the sound speed was converted to reference conditions (c12, uref = 12%). A second-degree polynomial (parabola) with a regression equation of the form: c// = 5649 - 27,371 × w + 0.0735 × w2 was used to convert cw to c12, and correction of measured and calculated values was used as well. The sound speeds c12 in sawmill assortments (c12,round, c12,log, c12,board) were evaluated by linear dependences. Dependence was not confirmed for c12,round and c12,board1 (r = 0.168), in contrast for c12,round and c12,log2 the dependence is statistically very significant (r = 0.634). The results of testing showed that the most suitable procedure for predicting quality of structural timber is the first step round timber – log2, the second step: log2 - board2. More exact results of the construction boards were obtained from log2 than from log1. The sound speed is used in the calculation of dynamic modulus of elasticity (Edyn). EN 408 mentions the possibility of using dynamic modulus of elasticity as an alternative method in predicting the quality of structural timber.

A Computationally Efficient Mean Sound Speed Estimation Method Based on an Evaluation of Focusing Quality for Medical Ultrasound Imaging

Generally, ultrasound receive beamformers calculate the focusing time delays of fixed sound speeds in human tissue (e.g., 1540 m/s). However, phase distortions occur due to variations of sound speeds in soft tissues, resulting in degradation of image quality. Thus, an optimal estimation of sound speed is required in order to improve image quality. Implementation of real-time sound speed estimation is challenging due to high computational and hardware complexities. In this paper, an optimal sound speed estimation method with a low-cost hardware resource is presented. In the proposed method, the optimal mean sound speed is determined by measuring the amplitude variance of pre-beamformed radio-frequency (RF) data. The proposed method was evaluated with phantom and in vivo experiments, and implemented on Virtex-4 with Xilinx ISE 12.4 using VHDL. Experiment results indicate that the proposed method could estimate the mean optimal sound speed and enhance spatial resolution with a negligible increase in the hardware resource usage.

Measurements of Normal Incidence Reflection Loss as a Function of Temperature at the Water-Castor Oil Interface

Reflection loss at the water-castor oil interface as a function of temperature was measured in a direction normal to the interface using a 200-kHz acoustic signal. The acoustic impedance of water increases with temperature, whereas that of castor oil decreases. The measured reflection losses varied from 30 to 65 dB, and a sharp rising peak in reflection loss was observed at the temperature at which the acoustic impedance of water became equal to that of castor oil. This temperature is called the temperature of intromission in this paper. These measurements were compared with the model predictions based on a Rayleigh-reflection model using the measured sound speeds of both fluids. The sound speeds in water and castor oil as functions of temperature are the input parameters of the Rayleigh-reflection model, and were measured directly using an arrival time difference method in the temperature range of 5 to 30 °C. The comparison results imply that temperature is an important factor affecting the reflection at the interface separating the two fluids.