Ultrasonic tomography for process measurement

In this paper, an ultrasonic tomographic technique suitable for gas/liquid and solid particle flow measurement is reported. An ultrasonic tomographic system and image reconstruction algorithm based on measurements of scattered waves is described. Fan-beam transducers are used in the ultrasonic tomographic system and the data acquisition scheme attempts to minimise the time for data acquisition and is more suitable for measuring faster flows. A computer model of the imaging system has been developed in which the performance of transducers, the interaction between sound wave and the scatterers and the electronics are considered. Experimental and simulation results are presented in this paper. The method of interpretation of the resulting images is described. When the geometrical dimension of the scatterers is much smaller than the ultrasound wavelength, re. Rayleigh scattering, the sizes and the locations of the scatterers may be estimated from the resultant images.