Directed weighted network structure analysis of complex impedance measurements for characterizing oil-in-water bubbly flow

Oil-water flows widely exist in the oil exploration industry. Particularly, the high water-cut always leads to a lot of oil droplets dispersing in a water continuum with diverse size, called oil-in-water bubbly flow. Characterizing the evolution of the flow structures underlying such a flow system represents a significant challenge of great importance and continuous interests. The complex network theory has undergone an explosive growth in recent years and has established itself as a powerful tool for exploring the complex system in the diverse fields. In this paper, based on the multivariate complex impedance measurements, we construct the modality transition-based network to characterize various flow structures in the evolution of dispersed oil-in-water bubbly flow. The results demonstrate that our analysis sheds some light on the understanding of the complicated flow behavior governing the formation and evolution of the oil-in-water bubbly flow structures. Due to the generality of our analytical framework, we expect it to be useful for broader applications in science and engineering.