Hybrid Physics–Diagnostic Estimation of Liquid Loading for Wet-Gas Flowmeter Correction: A Model-Based Uncertainty Framework
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: The established wet-gas corrections express the indicated gas rate as the true rate multiplied by an over-reading factor that depends on the Lockhart–Martinelli parameter. At most production metering stations that parameter is not measured, so the correction cannot be closed from the meter signal alone. This paper treats liquid loading as a latent variable to be estimated rather than treating the over-reading as a quantity to be learned. A thermodynamic prediction from composition, pressure and temperature is combined with a structurally distinct estimate from flowmeter diagnostic signals already transmitted at the station, and their disagreement is quantified by an estimator consistency index governing whether the correction is applied. The study is computational: no wet-gas loop data were used, the diagnostic estimator is specified but not fitted, and every figure below is a modeled uncertainty rather than a measured accuracy. In a Monte Carlo study of 300,000 simulated realizations over a rich-gas envelope (60–85 kg/cm2, 30–60 °C), three results follow. Inverse-variance fusion degrades the estimate unless the thermodynamic estimator declares an allowance for upstream carryover it cannot observe; with that allowance and an asymmetric weighting, the simulated 95% band falls from ±5.45% to ±4.28%. The consistency index is a specific detector of that failure mode: carryover occurs in 25% of realizations but in 94% of those rejected. Because the two estimates are not statistically independent, the covariance term must be retained in the index; omitting it progressively disables the acceptance test. A falsifiable experimental protocol is specified.
Source: ChemRxiv
Author: Leon Sandler
Language: English
Subfield: Mechanics of Materials
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7213236540