Utilizing prior information in the estimation of volume fraction distribution

For many industrial processes the bulk volume fraction of one phase such as gas or solid can be of considerable importance. For this reason it is often controlled within certain limits and therefore is known at least vaguely. Tomographic imaging of volume fraction can provide very valuable information not only on the bulk volume fraction but also on the spatial distribution of the phase of interest. Prior information on the bulk volume fraction can assist in tomographic inversion, even if this information is not precise. In this paper we propose an electrical impedance tomography approach for imaging volume fraction distribution. A vague bulk volume fraction prior is utilized in the estimation. Twodimensional numerical examples are used to demonstrate the proposed method.