Modelling of Electrical Capacitance Tomography Sensor Array for Air-Wax Detection
摘要
Electrical Capacitance Tomography is a fast, cost-effective, non-invasive and non-intrusive technique to analyze a multiphase flow in a closed pipe region. The ECT detects the dielectric material constant of two or more materials or mediums within the pipe. One of the most important factors of an ECT system is the parameters of the sensor array. This paper focuses on the design features and specifications of the sensor array used in experiments involving multiphase flow with air and waxy crude oil. This article discusses determining the number of electrodes and the sensor’s axial length using the sensitivity uniformity coefficient and sensitivity average. For a pipe with an inner diameter of 100 mm and copper electrodes, the 12 mm and 80 mm electrodes deliver the best results, as they offer the most effective sensitivity distribution within the pipe. The 12-electrode ECT system is tested with several types of multiphase flow. It produces an image error between 0.06 and 1.0 and a coefficient correlation between 0.76 and 0.96, indicating a strong correlation between image reconstruction and actual sample size.