Design and implementation of a non-invasive real-time microwave sensor for assessing water hardness in heat exchangers

Abstract

A non-invasive-monitoring of concentration and dielectric properties of calcium hardness in heat exchanger cooling water was conducted with a 2.5 GHz microwave cavity resonator designed and fabricated locally for the experiment. The principle of electric dipole moment theories were used to analyse the sample solution that occurs as a function of calcium ion content. Artificial difference of water hardness was prepared by mixing CaCl₂ in deionised water_. The sample was centrally positioned in the electric field of the TM₀₁₀ mode of a resonant cylindrical cavity. COMSOL simulation package was used to compare and validate the experimental cavity resonator frequency. Transmission signal (S₂₁) measurements via vector network analyser at different concentrations were observed a linear relationship in amplitude with different frequency changes. In addition, calcium absorption provides a first-order change in material polarisation (i.e. real permittivity), and second-order transitions associated dielectric losses (i.e. imaginary permittivity). These research findings introduce a novel technique of real-time monitoring of water hardness concentration by using non-invasive microwave sensor.

Keywords:

• Non-invasive
• microwave cavity resonator
• real-time monitoring
• water hardness
• heat exchanger

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge Liverpool John Moores University’s Radio frequency & Microwave (RFM) Group for providing the designed cavity resonator for this experiment, Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom, UMRG Grant RP012A-13AET, University Malaya Postgraduate Research Fund (PPP) (e.g. PG109-2015A) and University of Malaya, Malaysia for support to conduct this research work.