Transient Modelling of Wire-Mesh Sensor

Wire-Mesh sensor (WMS) is a device to measure transient phase fraction distributions of multiphase fluids, e.g. in a cross-section of a pipe. It has an enormous potential to be applied in many fields, i.e. chemical, energy and oil processing. However, some questions about its operational behavior are difficult to answer with experiments only. Therefore, we present in this paper a new finite element model of a capacitive WMS that is able to solve the transient current end electric field of the system. In this way, the model is coupled with an electrical circuit to amplify the currents flowing on the receiver electrodes allowing direct comparison with experimental data. In order to validate this approach, an experiment with deionized water was carried out and compared with two models: finite element model; and an electric circuit model, where the fluid impedance is considered as a capacitor with two parallel plates.