Method and apparatus for monitoring deposition of solids in pipelines using a plurality of radiation sources pointing to a unique detector

An apparatus for monitoring flow in a flow pipe comprising;

• a photon detector adapted for attachment at a first point on the periphery of said pipe;
• a first photon source adapted for attachment at the periphery of said pipe opposite the detector, said detector and first source defining a first chord across said pipe;
• one or more additional photon sources adapted for attachment at positions on the periphery of said pipe successively closer to the detector, said detector and one or more additional sources defining one or more additional chords across said pipe, wherein the first photon source and the one or more additional photon sources are of different photon energies;
• and
• a processor adapted to determine the densities across said first and one or more additional chords of the pipe as a function of the count rate detected by the detector from the first and one or more additional sources, respectively.

An apparatus for monitoring flow in a pipe comprising:

• a flow pipe having:
• a photon detector adapted for attachment at a first point on the periphery of said pipe;
• a first photon source adapted for attachment at the periphery of said pipe opposite the detector, said detector and first source defining a first chord across said pipe;
• one or more additional photon sources adapted for attachment at positions on the periphery of said pipe successively closer to the detector, said detector and one or more additional sources defining one or more additional chords across said pipe, wherein the first photon source and the one or more additional photon sources are of different photon energies;
• and
• a processor adapted to determine the densities across said first and one or more additional chords of the pipe as a function of the count rate detected by the detector from the first and one or more additional sources, respectively.

A method of monitoring flow in a pipeline comprising:

• Providing a mixed flow pipeline having:
• a photon detector at a first position on the periphery of said pipe,
• a first photon source at a second position on the periphery of said pipe, said detector and first source defining a first chord across said pipe, and
• one or more additional photon sources at positions on the periphery of said pipe defining one or more additional chords across said pipe, wherein the first photon source and the one or more additional photon sources are of different photon energies;
• determining the density across said first chord from the count rate detected from the first source by the detector;
• and
• determining the densities across said one or more additional chords from the count rate detected from the one or more additional sources by the detector, wherein the additional chords are chosen to have successively decreasing length across said pipe relative to said first chord.