Image quality evaluation of ECT sensors on dynamic multiphase flows with coupling field simulation

This paper investigates the effect of the number of electrodes in Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT) sensors for multiphase flow imaging based on three-dimensional fluid-electrostatic field coupling simulation. ECT sensors with 6, 8, and 12 electrodes were designed for comparative simulation experiments. The complex dynamic flows and capacitance measurements were instantaneously captured using the three-dimensional Fluid-Electrostatic Coupling Model. Two image reconstruction algorithms, i.e., Linear Back Projection and projected Landweber Iteration, were used to reconstruct ECT images, which are further evaluated using Structure Similarity Index Measure (SSIM) and Relative Image Error (RIE). Both SSIM and RIE results indicated that, for the given dynamic flow imaging cases, the 6-electrode ECT sensor outperformed the 8-electrode and 12-electrode ECT sensors.