Developing an electrical capacitance tomography (ECT)

[Fird]

Hi All,

I have been assigned to develop an electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) for two phase flow using LabVIEW.

Basically, a method of charging and discharging the capacitance is needed.

And the suggested way charge the capacitor is by sending an analog signal as voltage supply to it.

Thus, I would like a few suggestion/suggested tutorial that could be followed in order to ensure the objectives of this project is achieved.

Thank you.

-F- 

[johnsold]

Fird,

Sounds like an interesting project!

It is unclear form your post whether you need suggestions on LabVIEW, on ECT, or on the circuits to drive the electrodes.

Is this an academic project or commercial/industrial?

What are the objectives or specifications  which have been given?

Lynn 

[Fird]

Hi Lynn,

Thanks for your response.

FYI, this project iis an academic project.

I have to start from scratch. The main objective is to develop a tomography system of two phase flow using LabVIEW.

What I need now is a suggestion on LabVIEW.

Do you have any suggestion friend?

 -F- 

[battler.]

Can you use LabVIEW?  Are you proficient at it?

Is this a student project or otherwise?

Sounds like you will need a mixture of both NI hardware and software (LabVIEW).  In that case and if you have a budget to spend on it then contact you local NI field sales rep.

You have to do the research yourself and devise a way to apply LabVIEW to solve it.  I don't think many people, even electrical engineers like myself, will know or understand what an ECT is.

[Fird]

Hi Battler,

This is a student project.

As you mentioned, I do need both NI hardware and software. And in my university, we already have a few types of DAQ hardware.

The only concern now is about the data acquisition part which I need to clarify certain things about the input to the hardware and then later we could decide which hardware could be chosen for this project.

For this project, ECT is used for oil and gas industry to analyze the behaviour of two phase flow. 

Thus, I need some advise as a kick off for the LabVIEW acquisition part. If anybody could suggest me on the tutorial for charging and discharging method of capacitance, perhaps could drop by a note here where can I find it.

Thanks

-F- 

Message Edited by Fird on 08-19-2009 11:34 PM

[battler.]

The acquisition part is down to the I/O you need and the sample rate.  Remember Nyquist theorem?

Search the ni website.  There might be something.  You ask for an example which is very specific.  I'm fairly sure that your supervisor asked you to do such a projct because it is unlikely to have been done before.

Do your research.  Good luck to you.

[Fird]

Hi BAttler, 

Thanks for your wishes. 

I still open this discussion for those who still wish to contribute their idea towards this project.

 -F- 

[johnsold]

Fird,

Do you have any data or even educated guesses as to the capacitance of the electrodes, the frequency and amplitude of the signals to be generated and measured, and the variation of the dielectric constant with the flows you want to measure?

If you do not have any numbers, you are doing random guesswork rather than engineering.

I expect that you will need some custom circuits between your DAQ hardware and the pipeline.

People on the Forum will not do your work for you, but are quite willing to help answer specific questions.  Please tell us what parts you know and which parts you do not understand.

Lynn 

[Fird]

Hi Lynn and ALL,

Thanks for the response. As for now, I am still in my research part.

Thus, I will come back with better explanation and design in next post.

I'm not expecting people to do my work, but as u mentioned, I'm hoping that someone could suggest me for the design of the LabVIEW as my kick off for this project.

Yet, since this is a research project base, a deep study should be done and I will try my best to work on it.

Thanks ALL.

-F-