Rotational magnetic induction tomography

In magnetic induction tomography (MIT), an array of excitation coils is typically used to apply time-varying magnetic fields to induce eddy currents in the material to be studied. The magnetic fields from the eddy currents are then detected by an array of sensing coils to form an image of passive electromagnetic properties (i.e. conductivity, permittivity and permeability). Increasing the number of transmitters and receivers can provide a better image quality at the expense of a larger and more expensive MIT system. Instead of increasing the number of coils, this study investigates the possibility of rotating a single transmit–receive coil to image the electrical properties of the sample, by emulating an array of 200 transmit–receive coils by time-division multiplexing. Engineering details on the electromechanical design and development of a rotating MIT system are presented. The experimental results indicate that representative images of conductive samples can be obtained at 5 MHz by rotating a single transmit–receive coil.