Abstract
A nonlinear method based on a Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) to improve the images obtained from Electrical Capacitance Tomography (ECT) is proposed. Estimation of the molten metal characteristic in the Lost Foam Casting (LFC) process is a novel application in the area of the tomography process. The convergence rate of iterative image reconstruction techniques is dependent on the accuracy of the first image. The possibility of the existence of metal in the first image is computed by the proposed fuzzy system. This first image is passed to an iterative image reconstruction technique to get more precise images and to speed up the convergence rate. The proposed technique is able to detect the position of the metal on the periphery of the imaging area by using just eight capacitive sensors. The final results demonstrate the advantage of using the FIS compared to the performance of the iterative back projection image reconstruction technique. (C) 2009 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.