Calibration of pulsed electroacoustic method considering electrode–dielectric interface status and porosity

Abstract

Pulsed electroacoustic (PEA) method is widely used, but measurement conditions not always agree with the underlying PEA assumptions. This necessitates space charge recovery; however, existing research only addresses the attenuation and dispersion in lossy media. The effects of electrode–dielectric interface contact status and porosity on the accuracy of space charge distribution are discussed in the present article. It is shown that the presence of nonlinear interface and porosity can introduce severe error. However, because the properties of acoustic propagation of waves (which are generated from charge on the electrode and in the bulk) are different, the conventional recovery algorithm is no longer suitable for calibrating the charge density. To obtain accurate space charge profiles, it is necessary to eliminate these effects. A method has been proposed which is based on the original measurement process. The validity of the proposed method was tested by reasonable post-recovery electric field distributions.