US 12631555 B1Patent grantUnited States

Optical Coherence Imaging for Multiphase Flow

Official patent title

Fluid imaging based on optical coherence tomography

Arabic title: تصوير الموائع القائم على التصوير المقطعي بالتماسك البصري

Invention

Problem

Conventional multiphase-flow imaging can trade spatial resolution against acquisition speed, limiting cross-sectional observation of rapidly changing structures inside pipes.

Why it matters

Faster non-invasive cross-sectional imaging could improve process research, flow-regime analysis, and monitoring where interfaces and boundary layers change dynamically.

Approach

The system serially activates external optical heads around half of a pipe, routes reflected light through a fiber circulator to a detector, and applies Fourier processing to reconstruct multiphase cross-sectional information.

Who may benefit

Potential beneficiaries include multiphase-flow researchers, process-monitoring developers, optical-instrument manufacturers, chemical-engineering laboratories, and operators of transparent experimental flow loops.

Potential value

The architecture combines sequential circumferential optical sampling with OCT-style spectral detection and Fourier reconstruction to obtain localized cross-sectional information without inserting probes into the fluid.

Background

Electrical capacitance tomography is inexpensive and non-invasive but may provide limited spatial resolution and slower acquisition, especially when long electrodes integrate information over an extended pipe region. Optical coherence tomography uses low-coherence interferometry and spectral processing to achieve localized depth information. Applying it to multiphase flow requires optical access, synchronized sampling, stable calibration, and algorithms that distinguish interfaces and material properties. Industrial adoption also depends on pipe geometry, opacity, fouling, vibration, pressure, temperature, acquisition rate, and validated reconstruction accuracy.

Technology overview

The claimed system places multiple collimating optical heads along one half-circumference and activates one head at a time with an optical switch. A fiber circulator routes source and reflected light; a detector produces spectral data; and a controller uses a Fourier-transform algorithm for cross-sectional multiphase-flow analysis. Sources may be a SLED or tunable laser. Claim 1 further requires the entire pipe length to form a substantially circular closed loop, and dependent claims describe a glass pipe containing air and liquid. The drawings identify an experimental FFT result without quantitative accuracy metrics.

Potential applications

Laboratory multiphase-flow visualization.
Transparent process-loop monitoring.
Flow-interface and boundary-layer research.
OCT instrumentation for fluid studies.

Evidence-supported advantages

Uses non-contact external optical heads.
Activates one localized view at a time.
Applies Fourier processing to spectral data.
Supports SLED or tunable-laser sources.
Provides options for optical amplification and power division.

Development stage

System embodiments and a drawing labeled as an experimental FFT result are described; quantitative reconstruction and industrial prototype validation were not established. The development stage was not independently verified.

Commercial opportunity

The system could become a research instrument for transparent multiphase-flow loops. Commercial development requires measured spatial and temporal resolution, reconstruction error, detectable phase and concentration ranges, calibration and repeatability, comparison with ECT and camera methods, performance under fouling and bubbles, adaptation beyond glass closed loops, optical-safety controls, rugged packaging, and costed prototypes.

Patent classifications

WIPO IPC

G01N21/53Investigating or analysing materials by determining their chemical or physical properties
G01N21/47Investigating or analysing materials by determining their chemical or physical properties

CPC

G01N21/4795Investigating or analysing materials by determining their chemical or physical properties
G01N21/53Investigating or analysing materials by determining their chemical or physical properties
G01N21/474Investigating or analysing materials by determining their chemical or physical properties
G01N2021/4742Investigating or analysing materials by determining their chemical or physical properties
G01N2021/4752Investigating or analysing materials by determining their chemical or physical properties
G01N2021/4769Investigating or analysing materials by determining their chemical or physical properties
G01N2021/4797Investigating or analysing materials by determining their chemical or physical properties
G01N2201/0853Investigating or analysing materials by determining their chemical or physical properties

Inventors

First inventorMohamed Yehia Mohamed Shalaby

Keywords

optical coherence tomography
multiphase flow
optical heads
fiber circulator
Fourier transform
cross-sectional imaging
SLED
transparent pipe

Patent document and drawings

The patent publication is mapped to this record. Patent drawings remain within that publication; no separately cleared public media package has been supplied.