p2000 ERT
p2000 Electrical Resistance Tomography
The p2000, which was launched in 2000 is ITS's first instrument and is now a robust instrument for research and industrial processes. The instrument operates by taking data from an array of 16 electrodes in contact with the process media. These are either mounted on a baffle / dip-pipe or around the circumference of the pipe or vessel. These data are processed to provide a conductivity map of the sensing zone.
In contrast to many systems-based measurement techniques, tomography sensors are able to rapidly sense throughout a volume. Thus providing a dynamic picture of what is going on inside a pipe or vessel, e.g. whether a system is homogeneous.
Product Characteristics:
- Single modality (ERT)
- The instrument can be provided in 2 sizes - compact (1 or 2 planes) and full (expandable up to 8 planes)
- Units can be supplied as rack mounted to be fitted in cabinets and enclosures or as free standing units for laboratory use
- Intrinsically safe module certified to EEx ia II C T6, available to operate linear and circular tomography systems in a hazardous environment
Benefits to users are:
- Increased process understanding
- More effective process development
- Improved and more consistent product quality
Electrical Resistance Tomography
Electrical Resistance Tomography (ERT) is a measurement technique for obtaining information about the contents of process vessels and pipelines. Multiple electrodes are arranged around the boundary of the vessel at fixed locations in such a way that they make electrical contact with the fluid inside the vessel but do not affect the flow or movement of materials.
A typical application is real time monitoring of multicomponent flows within process engineering units. Specific applications where ERT has been successfully exploited include solid/liquid and liquid/gas mixing, hydrocyclones, packed columns, flotation columns, precipitation processes, liquid-liquid extraction and hydraulic conveying. In principle, ERT can be used to investigate and monitor any process where the main continuous phase is at least slightly conducting and the other phases and components have differing values of conductivity.
An ERT system produces a cross-sectional image showing the distribution of electrical conductivity of the contents of a process vessel or pipeline from measurements taking at the boundary of the vessel. The p2000 system injects a current between a pair of electrodes and measures the resultant voltage difference between remaining electrode pairs according to a pre-defined measurement protocol. This interrogates an entire ‘slice' through the measurement zone - analogous to a ‘body-scan' in medical imaging. A single measurement set consists of over 100 voltage measurements - the exact number depends on the pre-defined measurement protocol. An image reconstrcution algorithm processes the voltage measurements to determine the electrical conductivity distribution.
