Electrical Capacitance Volume Tomography (ECVT) System

ECVT systems consist of a data acquisition box, a 3D capacitance sensor, and reconstruction software. These systems are capable of providing capacitance frames that range from 50 to 200 frames per second.

We custom design every system to meet our customer’s specific needs. Contact us for a free consultaion!

 Electrical Capacitance Acquisition

The ECVT DAS is an Electrical Capacitance Tomography Data Acquisition box. It is designed to monitor a industrial processes and produce images of a multi-phase flow. The DAS measures the capacitance between all plate pairs of the sensor. It provides 276 distinct plate pair combinations with a resolution higher than 1 femtofarad.
The DAS dynamically balances out the standing capacitance of the cells (typically in the order of picofard) and the effect of cable capacitance (typically 500 picofarads). It operates at a rate of 50 frames per second when all 24 channels are used, and provides real time digitization of the flow. The mixed signal design uses a Virtex-5 FPGA which interfaces to DAC’s, ADC’s, multiplexer banks and programmable gain amplifiers.

Electrical Capacitance Sensors

ECVT sensors are designed to meet customer’s needs, made in various  shapes and sizes and are capable of withstanding harsh enviroments.  ECVT sensors can be embedded in an isolating layer for applications related to combustion or energy generation.

Our sensors have been tested on conduits of various shapes and sizes ranging from 1 inch to 60 inches in internal diameter. They have the potential to be applied for imaging flows in micro-channels.

Reconstruction Software

The ECVT reconstruction software is designed to provide 3D phase concentrations of the imaging region covered by the ECVT sensor. The software is capable of providing multi-resolution images that are compatible with Matlab. Reconstructed images are stored in 4D matrices (time as the fourth dimension) that can be loaded and analyzed using the widely used program Matlab.

Image is courtesy of NETL,DOE