Innovative Non-Invasive and Non-Intrusive Precision Thermometry in Stainless-Steel Tanks Using Ultrasound Transducers

Sensors (Basel). 2024 May 25;24(11):3404. doi: 10.3390/s24113404.

Abstract

Measuring temperature inside chemical reactors is crucial to ensuring process control and safety. However, conventional methods face a number of limitations, such as the invasiveness and the restricted dynamic range. This paper presents a novel approach using ultrasound transducers to enable accurate temperature measurements. Our experiments, conducted within a temperature range of 28.8 to 83.8 °C, reveal a minimal temperature accuracy of 98.6% within the critical zone spanning between 70.5 and 75 °C, and an accuracy of over 99% outside this critical zone. The experiments focused on a homogeneous environment of distilled water within a stainless-steel tank. This approach will be extended in a future research in order to diversify the experimental media and non-uniform environments, while promising broader applications in chemical process monitoring and control.

Keywords: non-destructive testing; non-invasive testing; thermometry; time-of-flight measurement; ultrasound instrumentation; water monitoring.