Wire-mesh tomography sensors for multiphase flow investigations

Navintiran Rajan, Ruzairi Abdul Rahim*, Mohd. Shukri Manaf, Mohd. Hafiz Fazalul Rahiman, Anita Ahmad, Yusri Md. Yunus, Sallehudin Ibrahim, Yasmin Abdul Wahab, Mimi Faisyalini Ramli, Suzanna Ridzuan Aw Abdullah*,

Abstract

Wire-mesh tomography is new to the tomography field. First founded in 1998, the wire-mesh tomography had been used in several sectors as secondary optional sensors. The wire-mesh sensor can be used to gain void fraction distribution in multiphase flow visualization. By using tomography techniques, several measurements like velocity or phase fraction boundaries can be determined and analysed. The sensor basically built perpendicularly as transmitter and receiver layer located above and below respectively. The sensor wires are made of copper and 16 sensors for each layer, those sensors are considered low-cost, easy built and withstand a harsh environment to investigate multiphase flow. Traditional wire-mesh tomography image reconstruction methods only supply the same number of pixels as the measurement number, therefore wire-mesh sensors have a speed benefit but a lower image resolution. The findings from the previous experiments indicate difference in capacitance and other factors on the output.

Keywords: Wire-mesh, multiphase flow, phase fraction, image resolution, sub pixels, linear back projection