The Physics of Interdigitated Dielectrometry Sensors and Application as In-Situ Oil Oxidation Monitoring

<p>Monitoring of hydrocarbon oxidation is of great importance in many industry applications and reliable in-situ measurements are a challenge. In literature, it was shown that new versus degraded hydrocarbons show a change in their dielectric properties. In this thesis, the degradation of the oil was investigated by means of two thermal oil degradation experiments and the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. In addition, the impact. on the dielectric properties were determined using a novel type of a dielectric test cell that is temperature compensated. It was found that ketones, acids and moisture were generated through a thermal oil aging process. These products have been found to change in the dielectric properties of the liquid which are reflected through the complex permittivity. Ketones increased largely the real part of the permittivity and organic acids affected predominantly the imaginary part of the complex permittivity in a nonlinear fashion, which could be described using a modified polaron theory model. These measurements served as the base for the development of a novel kind of interdigitated sensor that can measure the dielectric properties such as the relative permittivity and the intrinsic conductivity with high accuracy and precision, without being affected by temperature. This is a crucial step in the development of a suitable in-situ sensor, as it does not need to undergo a complicated temperature curve compensation or calibration using calibration-liquids. The interdigitated sensor, made using cost efficient printed circuit board technology, exhibited an accuracy in measuring the complex permittivity of about 99%. The sensing precision was practically limited by the measurement instrumentation using a developed Faraday shield for the sensor. The sensor was used in an oil degradation experiment. to verify the in-situ capability. These measurements of the relative permittivity and conductivity yielded values such as a degree of oxidation and acidity number. For the first time: it was possible to measure in-situ the complex dielectric properties of liquids at temperatures between 20 °C to 140 °C using interdigitated sensors.</p>

The Physics of Interdigitated Dielectrometry Sensors and Application as In-Situ Oil Oxidation Monitoring

<p>Monitoring of hydrocarbon oxidation is of great importance in many industry applications and reliable in-situ measurements are a challenge. In literature, it was shown that new versus degraded hydrocarbons show a change in their dielectric properties. In this thesis, the degradation of the oil was investigated by means of two thermal oil degradation experiments and the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. In addition, the impact. on the dielectric properties were determined using a novel type of a dielectric test cell that is temperature compensated. It was found that ketones, acids and moisture were generated through a thermal oil aging process. These products have been found to change in the dielectric properties of the liquid which are reflected through the complex permittivity. Ketones increased largely the real part of the permittivity and organic acids affected predominantly the imaginary part of the complex permittivity in a nonlinear fashion, which could be described using a modified polaron theory model. These measurements served as the base for the development of a novel kind of interdigitated sensor that can measure the dielectric properties such as the relative permittivity and the intrinsic conductivity with high accuracy and precision, without being affected by temperature. This is a crucial step in the development of a suitable in-situ sensor, as it does not need to undergo a complicated temperature curve compensation or calibration using calibration-liquids. The interdigitated sensor, made using cost efficient printed circuit board technology, exhibited an accuracy in measuring the complex permittivity of about 99%. The sensing precision was practically limited by the measurement instrumentation using a developed Faraday shield for the sensor. The sensor was used in an oil degradation experiment. to verify the in-situ capability. These measurements of the relative permittivity and conductivity yielded values such as a degree of oxidation and acidity number. For the first time: it was possible to measure in-situ the complex dielectric properties of liquids at temperatures between 20 °C to 140 °C using interdigitated sensors.</p>

Design and Optimization of Microwave Sensor for the Non-Contact Measurement of Pure Dielectric Materials

This article presents an optimized microwave sensor for the non-contact measurement of complex permittivity and material thickness. The layout of the proposed sensor comprises the parallel combination of an interdigital capacitor (IDC) loaded at the center of the symmetrical differential bridge-type inductor fabricated on an RF-35 substrate (εr = 3.5 and tanδ = 0.0018). The bridge-type differential inductor is introduced to obtain a maximum inductance value with high quality (Q) factor and low tunable resonant frequency. The central IDC structure is configured as a spur-line structure to create a high-intensity coupled electric field (e-field) zone, which significantly interacts with the materials under test (MUTs), resulting in an increased sensitivity. The proposed sensor prototype with optimized parameters generates a resonant frequency at 1.38 GHz for measuring the complex permittivity and material thickness. The experimental results indicated that the resonant frequency of the designed sensor revealed high sensitivities of 41 MHz/mm for thickness with a linear response (r2 = 0.91567), and 53 MHz/Δεr for permittivity with a linear response (r2 = 0.98903). The maximum error ratio for measuring MUTs with a high gap of 0.3 mm between the testing sample and resonator is 6.52%. The presented performance of the proposed sensor authenticates its application in the non-contact measurement of samples based on complex permittivity and thickness.

Visualizing Impedance Spectroscopy Response for Interpretation of Collected Data

Measurements and interpretation of electrical impedance in electrochemistry and in related studies has become recently fairly commonplace as both the hardware and the interpretation software are more and more standard part of electrochemical potentiostats. With the interpretation software it is possible to model the studied system in any conceivable way, even if the physical reality may not follow the chosen model. An example is given where a circuit consisting of a capacitor with resistors in series and parallel are evaluated as if the circuit were just a pure capacitor. The method of plotting the results as complex permittivity and complex modulus is also shown.

Epoxy Casting Systems with Harmless Hardeners for Outdoor Applications

Presented thesis is focused on studying of electro-insulating casting systems based on epoxy resin. The aim of the article is to acquaint the reader with the development of this systems – epoxy resin with hardeners that comply with REACH authorization. The temperature and frequency dependence of complex permittivity, complex electric modulus, loss factor and inner and surface resistivity of the given samples are investigated.