Electrostatic Sensors – Their Principles and Applications

Over the past three decades electrostatic sensors have been proposed, developed and utilised for the continuous monitoring and measurement of a range of industrial processes, mechanical systems and clinical environments. Electrostatic sensors enjoy simplicity in structure, cost-effectiveness and suitability for a wide range of installation conditions. They either provide unique solutions to some measurement challenges or offer more cost-effective options to the more established sensors such as those based on acoustic, capacitive, optical and electromagnetic principles. The established or potential applications of electrostatic sensors appear wide ranging, but the underlining sensing principle and resultant system characteristics are very similar. This paper presents a comprehensive review of the electrostatic sensors and sensing systems that have been developed for the measurement and monitoring of a range of process variables and conditions. These include the flow measurement of pneumatically conveyed solids, measurement of particulate emissions, monitoring of fluidised beds, on-line particle sizing, burner flame monitoring, speed and radial vibration measurement of mechanical systems, and condition monitoring of power transmission belts, mechanical wear, and human activities. The fundamental sensing principles together with the advantages and limitations of electrostatic sensors for a given area of applications are also introduced. The technology readiness level for each area of applications is identified and commented. Trends and future development of electrostatic sensors, their signal conditioning electronics, signal processing methods as well as possible new applications are also discussed

In-line powder flow behaviour measured using electrostatic technology

Within solid-dose manufacturing processes, powder flow and powder triboelectrification are critical to the quality of the final product. Off-line testers do not simulate the shear and packing conditions that a powder would experience in-process and may be unreliable in predicting in-line flow and charging properties, which are key components to successful formulation and process design. In this work, a dual-electrode, electrostatic powder flow sensor (EPFS) was used to obtain electrostatic signals that were generated in response to the pattern of flow of pharmaceutical powders in two density modes: The first being powders in lean phase flow, generated by free-fall of the powder from the outlet of a screw-feeder. The second being dense phase flow, through either 19.1 mm Ii.Dd. stainless-steel pipe or at the outlet of a tablet-press hopper. Powders were selected from a range of low to high cohesivity so as to study the effect of powder cohesion on the flow pattern. Electrostatic signals were then analysed by three distinct signal processing methods (RMS signal averaging, cross correlation, and Fast-Fourier-Transform) with a view to determining certain characteristics of powder flow, i.e. mass flow rate; cohesivity; and triboelectrification. In the first application a calibration was attempted to establish the link between the root-mean-square (RMS) of the electrostatic signal and the mass flow, as determined by the accumulation of mass on a balance placed below the screw-feeder (in the case of lean phase application) and the 19.1 mm i.d. pipe (in the case of dense phase application). In both cases it proved unsuccessful, owing to the instability in the electrostatic signal (i.e. its dependence on factors other than mass flow, for example inherent and induced charge fluctuations and moisture content). An alternative method for determining mass flow rate was proposed based on the second signal processing method, which involved the cross-correlation of signal from both sensors to determine the free-fall velocity. This method might work in future applications if combined with a suitable technique for determining the powder density. In the second application, a Fast-Fourier-Transform (FFT) of the electrostatic signal to yield an FFT spectrum was used to establish whether this technique could determine aspects of powder cohesivity. A correlation in rank order of cohesivity was observed between the ratio of the summed or averaged amplitudes at the three principle frequencies to the summed or averaged of the baseline components respectively, and the cohesivity of the powders, as determined by off-line powder rheometry assessments of dynamic flow and bulk properties. In the third application, the RMS signal normalised to the powder mass flow rate was used to study the time-dependent powder charging behaviour, which is induced by the transportation of the powder within the screw feeder. Characteristic relative charging profiles were obtained for each powder, which in some cases were coupled to charge-induced adhesion of the powder to the equipment. In the last application, the RMS signal generated from the EPFS sensor located at the outlet of the hopper on a rotary tablet press was used to interrogate the dense-phase intermittent-flow resulting from the dosing of the tablet die. Those more cohesive powders gave a larger RMS signal at the lower electrode (relative to the upper electrode) whereas less cohesive powders had similar RMS signals at each electrode. While the exact explanation of this effect is currently unknown these results suggest that the technique might be useful in the determination of die filling as a function of the input material characteristics. In summary, this work has provided some insight into the potential applications of EPFS for in-line measurement of powder flow and charging characteristics. Future work should focus on (i) developing an integrated sensor with an independent measurement of density to yield the powder mass flow using an inferential approach, (ii) co-use of techniques (such as Faraday-cup and charge decay analysers) to validate the in-line charging behaviour, (iii) further exploration of the significance of the signal amplitude difference at the tablet press hopper outlet in on the characteristics of the tablet compact

Particle size measurement using electrostatic sensor through spatial filtering method

Particle size measurement is important in powder and particle industries in which the particle size affects the productivity and efficiency of the machine, for example, in coal-fired power plants. An electrostatic sensor detects the electric charge from dry particles moving in a pipeline. Analysis of the detected signal can provide useful information about the particle velocity, mass flow rate, concentration and size. Using electrostatic sensors, previous researches studied particle sizing using magnitude dependent analysis which is a highly conditional method where the results can be affected by other parameters such as particle mass flow rate, velocity and concentration. This research proposes a magnitude independent analysis for particle sizing in the frequency domain called spatial filtering method. The solution was started by modeling and analysis of the charge induced to the ring electrode using finite-element analysis to find the sensitivity of electrode. A mathematical model was provided to compute particle position on the radial axis of the electrode and then a new technique was proposed to extract a single particle size from the calculated particle radial position. To validate the proposed method experimentally, a sensor was designed and five test particles ranging from 4 mm to 14 mm were selected for measurement. The results show a 0.44 mm estimation error between the estimated and expected results. The results also show that the method is promising for the establishment of a reliable and cost-effective solid particle sizing system

Measurement of the Mass Flow and Velocity Distributions of Pulverized Fuel in Primary Air Pipes Using Electrostatic Sensing Techniques

On-line measurement of pulverized fuel (PF) distribution between primary air pipes on a coal-fired power plant is of great importance to achieve balanced fuel supply to the boiler for increased combustion efficiency and reduced pollutant emissions. An instrumentation system using multiple electrostatic sensing heads are developed and installed on 510 mm bore primary air pipes on the same mill of a 600 MW coal-fired boiler unit for the measurement of PF mass flow and velocity distributions. An array of electrostatic electrodes with different axial widths is housed in a sensing head. An electrode with a greater axial width and three narrower electrodes are used to derive the electrostatic signals for the determination of PF mass flow rate and velocity, respectively. The PF velocity is determined by multiple cross-correlation of the electrostatic signals from the narrow electrodes. The measured PF velocity is applied on the root-mean-square magnitude of the measured electrostatic signal from the wide electrode for the calibration of PF mass flow rate. On-plant comparison trials of the developed system were conducted under five typical operating conditions after a system calibration test. Isokinetic sampling equipment is used to obtain reference data to evaluate the performance of the developed system. Experimental data demonstrate that the developed system is effective and reliable for the on-line continuous measurement of the mass flow and velocity distributions between the primary air pipes of the same mill

Development of an electrical charge sensing prototype for pneumatic conveying imaging system

In the view of heterogeneous flow characteristics of solid particles in pneumatic pipeline system, electrostatic signals of an array 16 electrical charge sensors were developed. The distribution solid particle properties of the electrostatic signals in handling of vertical pneumatic conveying system under different flow conditions were monitored and experimental verification was conducted. The results show that the energy distribution of an array electrostatic signals can be used to determine the distribution of solids inside the pipe. Regardless of the differences in mass flow rate, the pattern of experimental outputs was identical which demonstrates that mass flow rate disparity has no impact on the structure of voltage output. This result also indicates that the electrical charge sensor able to quantify the dissemination of solid particles in pneumatic conveying stably and accurately

Electrostatic instrumentation and measurements on powders and powder mixtures

In the powder industry, such as the pharmaceutical or chemical industry, powder particles collide frequently with the surrounding surfaces and with other particles and become electrostatically charged in different processes. The charging may cause problems, for example, in powder mixing and conveying. High charge values increase particle adhesion on surfaces. Charged particles may adhere to sensors or production lines of a pharmaceutical plant. In the worst case, even a dust explosion may occur. The aim of this work was to develop instrumentation for these kinds of processes and to study the charging and electrical resistivity of powders and powder mixtures. The charge and resistivity are the fundamental quantities when electrostatic effects are studied. The charge is a direct measure for the intensity of the electrostatic charging, and the resistivity is related to the dissipation of the accumulated charge. In the thesis, a method for studying the powder resistivity as a function of humidity was developed. The new method proved to be significantly faster than the traditional steady-state measurements. For instance, the resistivity of a lactose powder was measured in 24 hours with the new one-step method but took four weeks with the traditional method. The electrical resistivity of powder mixtures was also studied. It was observed that the particle size difference of the component materials played an important role in the effective resistivity. Two induction probes for measuring the charge density of powder in a fluidized bed were developed. The probes were designed using computer simulations, calibrated with frictionally charged spheres, and finally tested in a laboratory-scale fluidized bed. The charging of lactose and salbutamol sulphate was studied at different humidities. The humidity had a special effect on the charging of their mixtures. At low humidities, the mixtures charged negatively. As the humidity was increased, the charge polarity flipped from negative to positive. When the once humidified samples were dried, the polarity did not flip back to negative but remained positive. It was suggested that the small salbutamol sulphate particles adhered to larger lactose particles due to increased capillary forces and remained adhered even if the powder was again dried. A method for studying the charging of powders on-line during surface adhesion was also developed and used in measurements. The powder was slid in a pipe, and the charge and mass of the transferred powder were simultaneously monitored. With powder mixtures, it was observed that the dominant charging mechanism changed from powder–pipe contacts to powder–powder contacts between the two dissimilar powders quickly after the other powder component started to adhere to the pipe surface

A Model-Based Analysis of Capacitive Flow Metering for Pneumatic Conveying Systems: A Comparison between Calibration-Based and Tomographic Approaches

Pneumatic conveying is a standard transportation technique for bulk materials in various industrial fields. Flow metering is crucial for the efficient and reliable operation of such systems and for process control. Capacitive measurement systems are often proposed for this application. In this method, electrodes are placed on the conveyor systems transport line and capacitive signals are sensed. The design of the sensor with regard to the arrangement and the number of electrodes as well as the evaluation of the capacitive sensor signals can be divided into two categories. Calibration-based flow meters use regression methods for signal processing, which are parametrized from calibration measurements on test rigs. Their performance is limited by the extend of the calibration measurements. Electrical capacitance tomography based flow meters use model-based signal processing techniques to obtain estimates about the spatial material distribution within the sensor. In contrast to their calibration-based counterparts, this approach requires more effort with respect to modeling and instrumentation, as typically a larger number of measurement signals has to be acquired. In this work we present a comparative analysis of the two approaches, which is based on measurement experiments and a holistic system model for flow metering. For the model-based analysis Monte Carlo simulations are conducted, where randomly generated pneumatic conveying flow patterns are simulated to analyze the sensor and algorithm behavior. The results demonstrate the potential benefit of electrical capacitance tomography based flow meters over a calibration-based instrument design

Mass Flow Rate Measurement of Pneumatically Conveyed Particles Through Acoustic Emission Detection and Electrostatic Sensing

Accurate online mass flow rate measurement of pneumatically conveyed particles is desirable to convert a conventional pulverized fuel fired power station into a smart thermal power plant. This paper presents a novel method for the online measurement of the mass flow rate of pulverized fuel through acoustic emission (AE) detection and electrostatic sensing. An integrated sensing head with an AE probe and three sets of electrostatic sensor arrays is developed. The proposed method determines the particle velocity by multi-channel cross correlation of the electrostatic signals and extracts the information about mass flow rate from the AE signal arising from impacts of particles with a waveguide protruding into the flow. An analytical model that relates the energy of the AE signals, the particle velocity and the mass flow rate is established. The sensing head was mounted on vertical and horizontal sections of a 72-mm bore laboratory-scale test rig conveying fine silica particles. Experimental tests were conducted under a range of flow conditions and installation orientations to assess the performance of the developed measurement system. The results demonstrate that the sensing head should be installed in any orientation away from the elbow on the vertical section of a pipe, while for installation on a horizontal pipe the waveguide should be in the horizontal direction. The instrumentation system is capable of measuring the mass flow rate of particles in the vertical pipe with a relative error within ±6.5% regardless of the orientation of the sensing head over the mass flow rate from 7 kg/h to 25 kg/h and the particle velocity from 12 m/s to 30 m/s. Whilst on the horizontal pipe the error is within ±5.8% when the sensing head is installed with the waveguide in the horizontal direction under the same flow conditions

Image Reconstruction Algorithm for Electrical Charge Tomography System

Abstract: Problem statement: Many problems in scientific computing can be formulated as inverse problem. A vast majority of these problems are ill-posed problems. In Electrical Charge Tomography (EChT), normally the sensitivity matrix generated from forward modeling is very ill-condition. This condition posts difficulties to the inverse problem solution especially in the accuracy and stability of the image being reconstructed. The objective of this study is to reconstruct the image cross-section of the material in pipeline gravity dropped mode conveyor as well to solve the ill-condition of matrix sensitivity. Approach: Least Square with Regularization (LSR) method had been introduced to reconstruct the image and the electrodynamics sensor was used to capture the data that installed around the pipe. Results: The images were validated using digital imaging technique and Singular Value Decomposition (SVD) method. The results showed that image reconstructed by this method produces a good promise in terms of accuracy and stability. Conclusion: This implied that LSR method provides good and promising result in terms of accuracy and stability of the image being reconstructed. As a result, an efficient method for electrical charge tomography image reconstruction has been introduced