Experimental study on the amplitude characteristics and propagation velocity of dynamic pressure wave for the leakage of gas-liquid two-phase intermittent flow in pipelines

Intermittent flow is one of the most complex flow patterns in gas-liquid two-phase flow in pipelines. The leakage of pipeline intermittent flow poses a threat to the operating safety. In order to improve the application of acoustic method to gas-liquid two-phase leakage detection, the amplitude characteristics and propagation velocity of dynamic pressure wave of intermittent flow for gas-liquid two-phase pipeline leakage were investigated. Experiments with conditions of superficial liquid velocity (vsL) from 0.57 m/s to 1.06 m/s, superficial gas velocity (vsG) from 0.3 m/s to 4.47 m/s, leakage aperture from 4 mm to 9 mm were carried out, and the characteristics were studied by time-domain analysis, frequency-domain analysis and time-frequency analysis. The propagation velocity formula of dynamic pressure wave in two-phase medium was fitted based on Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm, and the propagation velocity of straight pipe and elbow pipe was discussed. The experimental results indicate that the peak-to-peak value of dynamic pressure wave measured by sensor within 4.25 m increases during top or mid sustained leakage when leak aperture is larger than 4 mm in elongated bubble flow and 6 mm in slug flow. The amplitude of sustained leakage dynamic pressure increases as gas flow rate increases. The low frequency energy of signal increases immediately when leakage occurs, the energy of signal mainly concentrates at 0–15 Hz, the frequency amplitude of sustained leakage signal is much higher than normal flow signal and leak occur signal. As the gas volume fraction β increases from 0.23 to 0.75, the dynamic pressure propagation velocity decreases from 33.13 m/s to 26.5 m/s and then increases from 26.5 m/s to 66.25 m/s. The propagation velocity increases when it flows through an elbow pipe section. The results are meaningful for further study of two-phase pipeline slug flow leakage detection and location. •Experiments of gas-liquid two-phase intermittent flow leak-detection based dynamic pressure is carried out.•Time-frequency analysis of leakage signal is performed based on generalized S-transformation.•Velocity propagation formula is fitted based on Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm.•Detecting method and dynamic pressure sensor arrangement suggestion is given for leak-detection.