Noninvasive real-time 2D imaging of temperature distribution during the plastic pellet cooling process by using electrical capacitance tomography

Abstract

This study has launched a concept to image a real-time 2D temperature distribution noninvasively by a combination of the electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) technique and a permittivity-temperature calibration equation for the plastic pellet cooling process. The concept has two steps, which are the relative permittivity calculation from the measured capacitance among the many electrodes by the ECT technique, and the temperature distribution imaging from the relative permittivity by the permittivity-temperature calibration equation. An ECT sensor with 12 electrodes was designed to image the cross-sectional temperature distribution during the polymethyl methacrylate pellets cooling process. The images of temperature distribution were successfully reconstructed from the relative permittivity distribution at every time step during the process. The images reasonably indicate the temperature diffusion in a 2D space and time within a 0.0065 and 0.0175 time-dependent temperature deviation, as compared to an analytical thermal conductance simulation and thermocouple measurement.