Experimental study on size-dependency of effective permittivity of particle-gas mixture with agglomeration

The effective medium approximation (EMA) theory is the basis of a capacitance sensor used for concentration measurement of a particulate solid flow, its measurement result is independent on particle size. In existence of particle agglomeration or aggradation, however, it is found that the effective permittivity of a gas/solid mixture is dependent on particle size. In this paper, a parallel plate, differential capacitance sensor is utilized to investigate the influence of particle size on the effective permittivity of the mixture in such a case. Static experiments using three materials including glass, limestone and quartz particles were carried out in an off-line manner. The volume fraction of particles being tested ranged from 20 × 10^-6 to 600 × 10^-6, while the particle size was between 3 and 100 μm. Experimental results show that the effective permittivity of a particle-gas mixture with particle agglomeration is larger than that predicted by EMA and the smaller the particle size, the larger the effective permittivity. The experiment process and analysis results are discussed in detail in the paper.