Tomographic imaging of industrial process equipment: techniques and applications

Abstract

Opportunities for the use of noninvasive tomographic sensor technology are described and reviewed critically. Imaging instruments based on electrical sensing methods are discussed with respect to a number of process applications, including measurement of component concentration profiles, phase boundaries, component velocities and component mass flow rate. The use of low-noise electronic devices for process image sensing and the computationally intensive digital signal processing systems for image reconstruction are discussed. Limitations of current electronic techniques, particularly for future ultra high speed image reconstruction are revealed and directions for future progress are elucidated.