Simulation Study of Capacitance Tomography Sensors

Hua Yan, Fuqun Shao, and Shi Wang

School of Information Science & Engineering,

P. O. Box 321, Northeastern University, Shenyang, 110006, P. R. China, e-mail: cxscxsc@pub.sy.ln.cn

Abstract:- ECT sensors can be divided into three types according to their axial guard electrode design. Type 1: with earthed ring guards; type 2: with driven segmented guards and type 3: without guards. In this paper, the axial sensitivity distribution, and hence the effective measurement space of above three ECT sensors are analysed using three dimensional finite element method. Analysis shows that the effective measurement space of type 1 is the narrowest in axial direction, and that of type 2 is the widest. This result is confirmed by reconstructed images. Finally, which type ECT sensor is suitable for imaging a blast furnace is discussed. Due to the furnace burden is axial layered, limiting the effective measurement space is essential to the reconstruction image quality.

Keywords: ECT sensor, effective sensing space, sensor structure, simulation