This project will study and test the Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT) sensor to detect oil in/under ice. For oil detection and thickness estimation under/in ice, where the access to the imaged region is limited to above its surface, AUB proposes a planar sensor design where the electrodes are mounted on a single plane and placed at a relatively close distance above the ice surface.
The project deliverables include: prototype remote sensor/algorithms; bi-monthly Progress Reports; final report; and conference and refereed journal articles. The prototype remote sensor/algorithms will be delivered at the end of the project.
Sensor design optimization has been conducted. It was concluded that adding guards could lower the measured capacitance, which increases sensitivity and can be helpful to get measurements that are in accordance with the limitations of the acquisition device. Machine-learning was also tested for oil detection and estimation with over 94% detection accuracy. Two lab tests were conducted to determine possible sources of noise in the measurement.