Wire mesh sensor technology - on the road towards three-phase flow measurement

Wire mesh sensors are tools for ultrafast cross-sectional imaging of gas-liquid two-phase flows. They are helpful measurement devices for flow studies in fundamental chemical, nuclear and process engineering research problems, where multiphase flows play a role. A recent development of this technology is the capacitance wire-mesh sensor, which may be used to study phase fraction distributions in electrically non-conducting liquids. This is of particular importance for problems related to mineral oil processing. The presentation gives an overview on the current state-of-the-art in wire mesh sensor technology and discusses its potential for the studiy of complex and transient liquid-liquid-gas three-phase flows.