Extending industrial applicability of TDR liquid level monitoring through flexible probes

Abstract

In the present work, an alternative probe configuration to be used for time domain reflectometry (TDR)-based monitoring of liquid level inside tanks is presented. The proposed probe, which resorts to a bifilar transmission line configuration, is flexible and adaptable to the surface of the containers to be monitored. This feature, along with the other advantageous characteristics of TDR, makes this probe configuration particularly attractive for industrial applications. In this paper, to test the applicability of the method, two different scenarios are considered: monitoring of liquids contained in metallic tanks and non-invasive monitoring of liquids in non-metallic tanks. Results show that, in both cases, the proposed system has considerable potential for being easily and effectively employed in practical, industrial applications.