Study on Liquid Film Characteristics of Supersonic Separator Based on Conductance Sensor Array

Supersonic separator is a promising technology for natural gas dehydration, and understanding the liquid film movement characteristics within the separator can significantly enhance separation efficiency. A 16×16 electrode-pair conductance sensor array was designed to conduct liquid film measurement in the expansion section of supersonic separator under different back pressure ratio and inlet liquid content. The results revealed that the fluctuations in liquid film thickness and the average energy decay rates were strongly influenced by the operating conditions, providing a real-time flow pattern monitoring approach based on frequency-domain energy. To further analyze liquid film characteristics, a liquid film thickness image reconstruction method based on time fusion and sensitivity matrix (TF-SM) was innovatively proposed. Compared to bicubic interpolation, TF-SM reduced the normalized mean square error (NMSE) from a maximum of 53.41% to 21.77%. The spatial velocity distribution of liquid film in different flow patterns was established using cross-correlation algorithm between reconstructed images, and the velocity fluctuations under different operating conditions were analyzed. Results showed that velocity fluctuations intensified as inlet liquid content increased and back pressure ratio decreased, with the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) of velocity differences ranging from 0.4% to 8.7%.