Industrial Process Tomography

Abstract

There has been tremendous development within measurement science and technology over the past couple of decades. New sensor technologies and compact versatile signal recovery electronics are continuously expanding the limits of what can be measured and the accuracy with which this can be done. Miniaturization of sensors and the use of nanotechnology push these limits further. Also, thanks to powerful and cost-effective computer systems, sophisticated measurement and reconstruction algorithms previously only accessible in advanced laboratories are now available for in situ online measurement systems. The process industries increasingly require more process-related information, motivated by key issues such as improved process control, process utilization and process yields, ultimately driven by cost-effectiveness, quality assurance, environmental and safety demands.Industrial process tomography methods have taken advantage of the general progress in measurement science, and aim at providing more information, both quantitatively and qualitatively, on multiphase systems and their dynamics. The typical approach for such systems has been to carry out one local or bulk measurement and assume that this is representative of the whole system. In some cases, this is sufficient. However, there are many complex systems where the component distribution varies continuously and often unpredictably in space and time. The foundation of industrial tomography is to conduct several measurements around the periphery of a multiphase process, and use these measurements to unravel the cross-sectional distribution of the process components in time and space. This information is used in the design and optimization of industrial processes and process equipment, and also to improve the accuracy of multiphase system measurements in general.In this issue we are proud to present a selection of the 145 papers presented at the 5th World Congress on Industrial Process Tomography in Bergen, September 2007. Interestingly, x-ray technologies, one of the first imaging modalities available, keep on moving the limits on both spatial and temporal measurement resolution; experimental results of less than 100 nm and several thousand frames/s are reported, respectively. Important progress is demonstrated in research and development on sensor technologies and algorithms for data processing and image reconstruction, including unconventional sensor design and adaptation of the sensors to the application in question. The number of applications to which tomographic methods are applied is steadily increasing, and results obtained in a representative selection of applications are included.As guest editors we would like express our appreciation and thanks to all authors who have contributed and to IOP staff for excellent collaboration in the process of finalizing this special feature.