Study of Flame Characteristics Using Electric Capacitance Tomography

Abstract With increasing awareness of energy savings and environmental protection in recently years, more emphasis on the monitoring of the intensity distribution in a flame and its stability have been raised in connection with the improvement of combustion efficiency and pollutant control. Albeit there are different opinions, it is generally recognized that Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT) measurement is directly related to the ionization of the flame, which in turn is closely related to the intensity of combustion. In this paper, a novel ECT sensor has been designed to withstand high temperatures and a series of experiments based on ECT system have successfully imaged diffusion flame of methane. Also, simulations on three dimensional sensitivity maps are generated to reconstruct images of 3D flame. Experiments and simulation results based on permittivity characteristics of a flame have successfully been used to image the flame, which in turn proves the assumptions raised in the study.