Vol. 24 No. 2 (2025): Mapana Journal of Sciences
Research Articles

Design and Development of a Capacitance Sensor for Gas/Gas or Gas/Liquid Void Fraction Detection

  • Kesavan Venkatachalam
Kesavan Venkatachalam
University of Madras, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Published 2025-07-22

Keywords

  • Capacitance sensor, Two-phase flow, Void fraction, Phase-shift Gas/Liquid detection.

Copyright (c) 2025

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Abstract

The capacitance-based void fraction sensor was developed to detect various types of liquids and gases. This sensor consisted of two semi-concave copper plates mounted parallel to each other on a hollow cylindrical glass tube. A radio frequency signal was applied to the sensor, and changes in the phase shift of the input signal were observed, corresponding to variations in the dielectric constant. Measurements were conducted with different types of liquids and gases, resulting in measurable changes in the phase shift between the input and output signals. The experimental results demonstrated that the phase shift of the signal was proportional to the dielectric constant of the liquid flowing through the pipeline. The measured phase shift was compared with theoretical values, revealing close agreement. These findings support the potential application of the capacitance-based void fraction sensor for detecting liquid and gas flow in pipelines.

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