Mass Flow Rate Measurement Based on Electrical Capacitance Tomography with Feasibility Application in Cereal Combines and Assessment of Discretization on Field Potential

Mass flow rate measurement has application in many industrials, e.g. silos, ports, food and drug industry. Mass flow sensors are used in cereal combines as well. Installed mass flow sensors on the combines creates some problems such as; cost, precision, recalibration and sensitivity for environmental conditions. So, introducing a new sensor based on new technology would had potential for future installation. A mass flow rate measurement sensor based on electrical capacitance tomography constructed and evaluated in this research. Defining the best discretization method for solving potential equations in FEM was the main objective of this research. Therefore, four discretizing method are compared and results are evaluated from run-time and precision viewpoint. According to results, the finer elements near the electrodes and increasing element numbers in such a way that don’t break the in-situ condition would be the best cases. The ECT system with fine elements and mesh numbers of 2048 would be applicable for mass flow rate measurement in combine harvesters.