Structured analysis and simulation of sensors for electrical capacitance tomography of oil/water two-phase flow

The investigated subject of this paper is major in the Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT) system of 8-electrode oil-water two-phase flow, and the basic principle of ECT is then introduced. For the characteristic that the quality of image reconstruction depends on the distribution of EC sensitivity field, we present Finite Element Method (FEM) to select structural parameters that can determine the performance of ECT sensors, such as the length of electrode, the thickness of pipeline wall, the filling material between pipeline and shielding cover, radial electrode plate and so on. Then we can define optimum parameters of sensors and do an optimization design for such sensors. Finally the definite structural parameters of sensors are shown as follows: R-1=40mm, R-2=43mm, R-3=62mm, h(1)=1.5mm, theta=30degrees, epsilon(3)=5, epsilon(4)=2.2. In this way the performance of sensors is more excellent than other sensors used previously, and the performance of the system can be obviously improved. According to the ECT sensors based on such optimum parameters we can get more ideal reconstructed images.