International Society for Industrial Process Tomography

Towards ECT Coupled with CMOS Vision Sensing Qualitative Analysis of Bulk Solid Flow Concentration and Velocity Profiles

A. Leszczyńska, M. Miłak, K. Grudzień, A. Romanowski, Z. Chaniecki and D. Sankowski

Institute of Applied Computer Science, Lodz University of Technology, Lodz, Poland,

ABSTRACT

This paper presents analysis of concentration and velocity changes during pneumatic conveying of solids. The flow characteristics were obtained as a joint study based on Electrical Capacitance Tomography system and high-speed CMOS optical image sensors. The analysis of results is useful for exploration of the relationship between velocity and concentration level. Combination of CMOS and ECT images provided comprehensive knowledge on changes in the concentration and velocity values during the transport of granular material. The analysis of material concentration changes was conducted using average value of ECT data and also with the aid of optical image processing algorithm. The flow velocity was estimated using correlation techniques, based on twin plane 8-electrodes ECT sensor coupled with CMOS camera images processing. The obtained values of ECT and CMOS datasets were analysed first separately and later jointly. Paper covers comparison of these two types of data and presents discussion about advantages and disadvantages of these two techniques in application to granular flow monitoring.

Keywords Solid and gas flow, concentration/velocity profile, pneumatic conveying

Industrial Application food industry, pharmaceutical industry