Detection of Oil-Water Separation Process Based on Embedded Serpentine Microstrip Line Array

Dynamic monitoring of oil-water separation occupies an important position in the petroleum industry. This study introduces a sensor detection system based on a serpentine microstrip line array (SMLA) to analyze the oil-water ratio in different mixing states by measuring the phase shift of microwave signals passing through the oil-water mixture. First, the approximate structure of SMLA was derived using formulas. The high-frequency structural simulator (HFSS) was used to optimize the structure of the SMLA and identify the optimal operating frequency. Subsequently, a detection system for oil-water separation was developed, and the experimental platform was built. Through calibration experiments, the phase shift characteristics of different oil-water ratios in two mixing states were extracted. Then, an oil-water separation experiment was conducted and combined with the phase shift calibration characteristic value. A classification decoupling method was proposed for the phase shift data collected in the mixed state and layered state, which improved the detection accuracy. Finally, the relative error of the oil-water ratio measurement in the mixed state was within 2.58%, and the relative error of the oil-water ratio measurement in the layered state was less than 0.24%. The reliability of the measuring system under different temperature conditions is also verified by experiments. The experimental results confirm that this method can provide a new solution for industrial oil-water separation detection.