This paper describes the design and development of a novel, non-invasive technique for measuring the mixture density of multiphase flows using the mechanical vibration characteristics of a pipe. The instrument comprises a flexible pipe section, a mechanical actuator with a driver unit to provide the required excitation to the actuator, force and displacement sensors and signal conditioning and data acquisition units. These provide force, displacement and frequency data to a novel model which has been developed, from first principles, to accurately predict the density of the flowing multiphase mixture. Experimental results obtained from the instrument for different multiphase mixtures shows that the mixture density can be accurately and repeatably estimated to within ±1% of its true value when operated at an optimum operating frequency.
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