Optimum estimation of the mean flow velocity for the multi-electrode inductance flowmeter

A multi-electrode inductance flowmeter is a combination of the traditional inductance flowmeter with the electromagnetic tomographic technique. In ord er to eliminate the random error of data acquisition of the multi-electrode inductance flowmeter. a chord measurement method and a data fusion algorit hm are presented. Using the chord measurement method, not only could the nu mber of measurement data be decreased to half that demanded by Engl's equat ion but also the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of measurement was improved. T he algorithm presented was used to fuse abundant data measured at multiple angles and to yield an optimum estimate of the mean flow rate in terms of a minimum mean square error. Simulation results showed that this algorithm w as robust and effective.