SENSING SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR MEASURING A PARAMETER OF AT LEAST A DIELECTRIC SUBSTANCE IN A TANK LAYER THICKNESS AND DIELECTRIC PROPERTY MEASUREMENTS IN MULTILAYER SYSTEMS

摘要

The sensing system for measuring a parameter of a dielectric substance generally has a tank for containing the dielectric substance; a directional sensor having; an antenna comprising at least one array of at least two antenna elements, the antenna elements being ultra-wide band antenna elements, the antenna being mounted to the tank and adapted to emit a signal comprising radiated electromagnetic energy toward the at least one dielectric substance and along a signal path, the antenna being further adapted to detect a signal after propagation thereof along the signal path; an antenna controller being operatively coupled to the antenna, the antenna controller being adapted to drive the emitted signal based on emission data, adapted to detect the detected signal and to generate detection data indicative of the detected signal; and a computing device operatively coupled to the antenna controller, the computing device being configured to determine the parameter. Methods and apparatus for evaluating properties of layered substances in tanks are disclosed. In particular, such properties can include a layer thickness of a first substance, a layer thickness of a second substance and also one or more dielectric properties of the substances in a multilayer system. The methods and apparatus involve the transmission of radiated electromagnetic energy toward the multilayer system and the detection of radiated electromagnetic energy reflected from the multilayer system to evaluate one or more properties of the layered substances.