Design and Implementation of a Linear Resistor Mesh Phantom for Evaluating the Linear ERT System

Linear electrical resistance tomography (ERT) sensor could be adopted for mapping the conductivity profile of vertically layered two-phase flows, i.e., in the floatation process. In the development of linear ERT sensor, it is important to find a suitable way to validate the measurement system. The use of linear phantom has been considered as an effective method to validate the biomedical electrical impedance tomography system. However, most of these phantoms are designed for modeling the homogeneous conductivity and circular electrode array. In this article, we propose a linear resistor mesh phantom that could mimic the case of floatation process and could be capable of modeling the varying pulp–froth interface level. The design method of phantom relies on the analogy with finite element method, i.e., its mesh and method in determining the global admittance matrix. The phantom is designed in a modular style, which could be assembled by a number of modular resistor mesh units. By implementing and reassembling the modular units with different resistor values, it could conveniently mimic the varying interface level in the floatation process. Experimental results showed that the developed phantom could model not only the different pulp–froth interface levels but also different conductivities. Good consistency has been achieved between the numerical simulations and ERT measurements that were made on the linear resistor mesh phantom, with the correlation coefficients greater than 0.9900.