Reply to Comments: A Novel Low-Cost Instrumentation System for Measuring the Water Content and Apparent Electrical Conductivity of Soils, Sensors, 15, 25546⁻25563.

In this article we respond to the comments made by Chavanne et al., who have questioned: (i) the name of the technique used; (ii) the ability of the system to determine both soil water content and salinity due to potential instrument biases and choice of sensor frequencies; and (iii) the procedure used to determine temperature effect on readings presented in the article "A Novel Low-Cost Instrumentation System for Measuring the Water Content and Apparent Electrical Conductivity of Soils" (Sensors 2015, 15, 25546⁻25563). We have carefully analyzed the arguments in the comment, and have concluded that they only partially affect the previous conclusions, as will be discussed in this reply. We show here that the findings and conclusions previously drawn are valid and supported by the many experiments previously conducted.

Air Flow Detection in Crude Oil by Infrared Light.

In this paper, we used infrared light in the range of 8-12 µm to develop and test an optical imaging system to detect air bubbles flowing in oil. The system basically comprises a broadband light source and a 31 × 32 thermopile array to generate images. To analyze the effects related to light absorption, reflection, and refraction on air-oil boundaries, a numerical model was developed and the predominance of the refraction instead of the absorption in bubbles with diameters below a certain critical value was observed. The IR region of the electromagnetic spectrum has both optical and thermic behavior. To understand the limits of each effect on the oil flow imaging, a study of the influence of temperature variation on the petroleum optical detection was performed. The developed optical imaging system allowed the detection of air flow in static oil and in oil-air two-phase flow. With the presented system, it was possible to achieve images through up to 12 mm of oil volumes, but this may be enhanced by the use of optimized IR sources and detectors.

Single- and two-phase flow characterization using optical fiber bragg gratings.

Single- and two-phase flow characterization using optical fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) is presented. The sensor unit consists of the optical fiber Bragg grating positioned transversely to the flow and fixed in the pipe walls. The hydrodynamic pressure applied by the liquid or air/liquid flow to the optical fiber induces deformation that can be detected by the FBG. Given that the applied pressure is directly related to the mass flow, it is possible to establish a relationship using the grating resonance wavelength shift to determine the mass flow when the flow velocity is well known. For two phase flows of air and liquid, there is a significant change in the force applied to the fiber that accounts for the very distinct densities of these substances. As a consequence, the optical fiber deformation and the correspondent grating wavelength shift as a function of the flow will be very different for an air bubble or a liquid slug, allowing their detection as they flow through the pipe. A quasi-distributed sensing tool with 18 sensors evenly spread along the pipe is developed and characterized, making possible the characterization of the flow, as well as the tracking of the bubbles over a large section of the test bed. Results show good agreement with standard measurement methods and open up plenty of opportunities to both laboratory measurement tools and field applications.

Planar Array Sensor for High-speed Component Distribution Imaging in Fluid Flow Applications.

A novel planar array sensor based on electrical conductivity measurements ispresented which may be applied to visualize surface fluid distributions. The sensor ismanufactured using printed-circuit board fabrication technology and comprises of 64 x 64interdigital sensing structures. An associated electronics measures the electricalconductivity of the fluid over each individual sensing structure in a multiplexed manner byapplying a bipolar excitation voltage and by measuring the electrical current flowing from adriver electrode to a sensing electrode. After interrogating all sensing structures, a two-dimensional image of the conductivity distribution over a surface is obtained which in turnrepresents fluid distributions over sensor's surface. The employed electronics can acquire upto 2500 frames per second thus being able to monitor fast transient phenomena. The systemhas been evaluated regarding measurement accuracy and depth sensitivity. Furthermore, theapplication of the sensor in the investigation of two different flow applications is presented.