Time domain reflectometry-based liquid level sensor

Raffaella Di Sante

Citation: Review of Scientific Instruments 76, 095107 (2005); doi: 10.1063/1.2037927

View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2037927
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 REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC INSTRUMENTS 76, 095107 共2005兲

Time domain reflectometry-based liquid level sensor

Raffaella Di Sante
CREA Centro di Ricerca per l’Energia e l’Ambiente, Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell’Innovazione,
Università degli Studi di Lecce, Via per Arnesano, I-73100 Lecce, Italy
共Received 24 February 2005; accepted 18 July 2005; published online 9 September 2005兲
An innovative system based on the time domain reflectometry 共TDR兲 principle for the measurement
of liquid level and interface is presented in this paper. The application of time domain reflectometry
in liquid level monitoring is relatively recent and most promising due to the achievement of very
high levels of accuracy and repeatability and to the substantial advantages over traditional sensors
used for level sensing. After a brief review and description of the operating principle and a
comparison to traditional techniques, the system is described with the results obtained using water
as a sample liquid and water and diesel fuel to show the system capability of detecting liquid-liquid
interfaces. © 2005 American Institute of Physics. 关DOI: 10.1063/1.2037927兴

INTRODUCTION ing widening success. Instead of being transmitted through

Measurement and monitoring of liquid levels in tanks is
important in many industrial processes.1 Liquid level mea-
surement may be performed in different ways; the more
common methods including motion, force, and pressure
transducers.2 The simplest technique consists of the use of a
float connected to a motion transducer or to a force trans-
ducer, which senses the buoyant force. Relative or differen-
tial pressure transducers3 may be employed to evaluate the
hydrostatic pressure, which is directly related to the liquid
level in a tank. Capacitance variation4 may also be utilized in
various ways for level sensing, with some insulating material
in the case of conducting liquids. Ultrasonic gages5 are also
employed in liquid level determination, based on the wave
reflection due to the interface between liquid and air.
Sensors using time domain reflectometry6–12 共TDR兲 as
an operating principle base their functioning on the time-of-
flight measurement, offering better performance compared to
other techniques based always on the detection of the time of
flight. Operation of ultrasonic transducers is for example af-
fected by changes in the sound velocity, which is dependent
on the physical features of the propagating medium, such as
temperature and density. Similar to ultrasonic transducers,
through-air radars are commonly employed for level detec-
tion with all the advantages offered by a noncontact technol-
ogy in harsh environments. Radar sensors do not present any
mechanical moving parts and are based on TDR; microwave
pulses are transmitted down into a tank and part of their
energy content is reflected back as they reach the liquid 共or
solid兲 product contained in the tank. In recent years, these
types of noncontact transducers have represented the optimal
choice in hard-to-measure situations. However, their opera-
tion is made less accurate due to one major drawback: part of
the pulse is reflected by the vessel walls producing spurious
signals acting as interfering inputs. This problem is related to
the propagation shape of the microwaves, which assumes the
form of a cone, as in the case of ultrasonic transducers.13 For
these reasons, a different technology based always on the
TDR principle has recently been developed and is experienc-
the air, microwave pulses are guided via a probe directly
immersed in the product to be monitored. In the past years,
this idea has been exploited mainly for the determination of
water content 共moisture兲 in soils and has proved to be defi-
nitely successful.6 The same principle is being transferred
with growing success to the liquid monitoring field. Its ca-
pabilities and limits are a primary subject of research among
engineers working in several industrial fields. In fact, this
technique has proved attractive for several areas of applica-
tion, ranging from the food to the oil and to the pharmaceu-
tical industry. There is however a substantial lack of infor-
mation on this specific subject in the scientific literature.
Guiding probes used to transmit the investigating signals
control the spread of the radar waves assuring higher reliabil-
ity with respect to through-air techniques. Furthermore, the
energy carried by the microwaves is concentrated along the
guiding probe with a consequent increase of signal-to-noise
ratio and the possibility to measure over longer distances.
The response time is also improved due to a higher value of
the propagating velocity.
SYSTEM CONFIGURATION AND FEATURES
The system presented in this paper transmits a step sig-
nal with very short rise time 共around 200 ps兲 recording the
transit time and the amplitude of the reflected signal. Any
variation of the impedance in the transmitting medium
causes a discontinuity that may be localized and recorded
through the analysis of the reflected signal 共see Fig. 1兲. In the
case of liquid level monitoring discontinuities are due to
variations of the relative permittivity of the medium. Discon-
tinuities of the electromagnetic type cause partial reflection
of the transmitted signal. The ratio between the reflected and
transmitted signal amplitudes is equal to the reflection coef-
ficient 共␳兲. Localization of discontinuities occurs through
signal conversion from a time-tension to a distance-tension
representation 共see Fig. 1, right兲. The travel time discontinu-
ity is given by

0034-6748/2005/76共9兲/095107/5/$22.50 76, 095107-1 © 2005 American Institute of Physics

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 095107-2 Raffaella Di Sante
FIG. 1. Signal received from the probe 共reflection coefficient diagram兲.
2Da
⌬t = , 共1兲
c
where c is the speed of light and Da is the apparent distance
traveled by the probe signal through the liquid being moni-
tored. The actual distance covered by the traveling signal, D,
can be recovered from the relative permittivity of the me-
dium, ␧, using the following relation:
Da
D=
冑␧ .
In general, the interface between the air 共␧ = 1, Da = D兲 and a
liquid can be easily recovered from a representation “reflec-
tion coefficient distance,” as reported in Fig. 1. The first
layer’s relative permittivity should be known when an inter-
face between two liquids is to be determined, in order to
locate precisely the discontinuity and then determine the
relative liquid levels.
The main problem related to guided-wave radars is ob-
taining accurate data in products with low relative permittiv-
ity, which produce a low reflected signal. This obstacle can
be overcome with some success using the so-called coaxial
probes. In this type of probe, the guiding rod is protected by
a tube acting like a ground shield, which channels the energy
and keeps constant impedance along the length of the waves.
The system presented here has the unique feature of spe-
cial coaxial probes with holes drilled in them, the diameter of
which exceeds that of the transmitting rod by nearly two
times. This special configuration makes a system capable of
tackling the problem of product buildup 共for example, in the
presence of paraffin wax in oil products兲 and to perform
better in the case of turbulent flows in the vessel. The domi-
nant mode of propagation with the holes is the transmission
electron microscopy 共TEM兲 mode, which is not perturbed by
the existence of the holes themselves. Experimentally it can
be seen that the holes do not reach the critical dimension
necessary to distort the electromagnetic field dimensions.
Therefore, different permittivities or diameter of the outer
conductor do not significantly affect the measurement. The
effect of other modes propagating in the outer shield have a
much lower influence, but their accurate description would
require a detailed separate analysis that is beyond the objec-
tives of this paper.
In more detail, the system is made of the following main
parts 共see Fig. 2兲: electronic unit, coaxial probes, multiplex-
ers, and managing and control software.
Probes can be realized in different lengths, depending on
the specific application. The probe employed in this work is
1.5 m long. Each rod has a constant diameter of 26 mm.
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Rev. Sci. Instrum. 76, 095107 共2005兲
FIG. 2. Block diagram of the system components.
Circular holes of 8 mm diam are drilled along the length of
the rod on the outer conductor. The connector is a panel jack
crimp manufactured by Telegärtner.
The electronic unit constitutes the system core and is
共2兲
able to generate the diagnostic signal, as well as to sample
and digitalize the reflected wave form. In Fig. 3 a block
component diagram of the electronic circuit is reported. The
product model used for the system presented here is a
TDR100 manufactured by Campbell Scientific, Inc. The
main specifications of the electronic unit are as follows:
pulse generator output, 250 mV; output impedance,
50± 1 % ⍀; time response of combined pulse generator and
sampling circuit around 200 ps; pulse length, 14 ␮s; timing
resolution, 12.2 ps. The main features of this system consist
of a rise time of less than 200 ps and a voltage amplitude of
200 mV with a pulse duration of approximately 14 ␮s. The
operating temperature range is from −30 to + 70 ° C. Part of
the electronics is integrated on miniaturized boards and can
be directly mounted on the top of the probe with a digital
display giving the desired information on the liquid level.
The most challenging task required of the electronics is
to be able to resolve millimeter variations occurring over
long distances from the probe. This is accomplished through
the use of a very rapidly arising signal, whose rise time is of
the order of picoseconds, thus allowing high resolutions even
at long distances. Based on the measurement principle, dis-
tance resolution is thus dependent on the “diagnostic” signal
rise time, which must satisfy the Nyquist theorem applied to
the spatial relative permittivity variations that may occur
along the signal traveling path.
Measurement accuracy may be affected by dissipation
occurring in the dielectric medium, depending specifically on
FIG. 3. Block component diagram of the electronic circuit.
 095107-3 A TDR-based liquid level sensor
the dielectric in which the gauge is immersed. For this rea-
son, signal strength is calibrated considering the type of liq-
uid, which will be monitored and is determined to assure
negligible signal losses with respect to the stated accuracy
共specified in the next section兲. In order to increase the mea-
surement accuracy, it is possible to average a number of
measured waveforms which can be presently set up to 120.
The probes are coaxial for the use in industrial tanks
with low relative permittivity products in the presence of
corrosive and harsh environments. The system also offers the
possibility of multiplexing a number of probes 共up to 16兲
through a single electronic unit by controlling the operation
via the system software.
RESULTS
Initial tests performed to determine the metrological
static characteristics of the sensor were accomplished using
water in a reference tank. The level of the water can be
controlled with millimeter uncertainty, which is sufficient for
many practical applications. Assuming the measurements are
made in stationary conditions, small perturbations of the liq-
uid surface can be neglected if they cause a surface displace-
ment smaller than 1 mm. However, uncertainties greater than
a few millimeters are not acceptable in many cases. This is
especially true in tanks of large diameter where just a few
millimeters’ change in the level leads to a high volume
change. Water has a high relative permittivity 共␧ = 80兲 and
therefore produces a strong return signal at the interface with
the air. A typical signal received from the probe is reported in
Fig. 1. The first change in the reflection coefficient 共␳兲 signal
is due to the probe flange and indicates the probe top from
which the water-air interface can be derived. Where a sudden
change in the reflection coefficient takes place, the measured
signal decreases proportional to the relative permittivity of
the liquid present in the tank. As the level increases or de-
creases, the position of the reflection coefficient decrease
changes accordingly, allowing the detection of the level
variations with high accuracy. The measured uncertainty is
±2 mm with levels up to 1500 mm, which corresponds to the
probe length used in the experiments. In the overall estima-
tion of the uncertainty, the reading error was also taken into
account since the level is observed on the scale engraved on
the reference tank. The diameter of the reference tank
共400 mm兲 is much larger than that of the probe 共25 mm兲,
making the errors due to the formation of a meniscus negli-
gible. In Fig. 4 the calibration curve obtained during the
measurements is reported for the water level varying in the
range 100- 1200 mm from the tank bottom. The x axis rep-
resents the distance in millimeters from the electronic unit
共where the signal is generated兲, after having subtracted the
length of the cable that carries the signal to the probe tip. The
total depth of the container minus the water level is indicated
in the y axis 共water level兲; the cable length was subtracted
from the data.
The sensor behavior is linear, as is expected from the
basic physical principle of the sensor. The repeatability and
the signal resolution are always lower than 1 mm and depend
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Rev. Sci. Instrum. 76, 095107 共2005兲
FIG. 4. Calibration curve obtained for increasing water level.
on the probe length and the number of spatial samples mea-
sured 共minimum value on a probe length of 1500 mm is
0.7 mm兲.
Analogous measurements were repeated using diesel
fuel. This time the reflection coefficient diagram presents a
first decrease due to the interface between the air and the fuel
and a second decrease that corresponds to the position of the
tank bottom. In the case of low relative permittivity products
共the relative permittivity of the diesel fuel is 2.1, which is
much lower than that of water兲 the tank bottom is much more
evident. In this case, the uncertainty achieved is of the order
of ±2 mm over the probe length used. As expected, the ac-
curacy is not influenced by the type of liquid, as long as the
return signal is strong enough to be detected 共for ␧ 艌 1.3兲 and
no buildup is present.
The last case examined concerns the interface measure-
ment between two liquids, water and diesel fuel. The setup is
shown schematically in Fig. 5, where the two curves were
obtained decreasing the water level. The reflection coeffi-
cient decreases a first time due to the air-diesel fuel interface,
and a second time due to the diesel fuel-water interface. The
high relative permittivity of the water leads to a weak and
scarcely detectable signal from the bottom of the tank. This
also indicates that in general a second interface is visible
only if the relative permittivity of the first layer is lower than
that of the second layer, it is observed experimentally that the
difference between relative permittivities of the two products
must be greater than around 10. In the case of oil and water
this condition is well satisfied. Also the thickness of the first
layer 共t in Fig. 6兲 plays an important role in the detection of
the second interface. In order to define the lowest value that
allows detection of the liquid-liquid interface, measurements
were taken in correspondence of different values of the die-
sel layer thickness, ranging from 40 to 10 mm. As shown in
Fig. 6, the first layer is not visible for the lowest value con-
sidered 共50 mm兲, but it becomes recognizable already at
60 mm. Measurements within the stated accuracy are pos-
 095107-4 Raffaella Di Sante Rev. Sci. Instrum. 76, 095107 共2005兲

FIG. 5. Signals obtained in the case of liquid-liquid interface measurement, decreasing the lower product 共water兲 level.

sible from 70 mm, indicating that this is the lowest thickness
possible to detect a liquid-liquid interface for this difference
in the dielectric constant.
To precisely locate the second interface one must know
the value of the relative permittivity of the first product. The
true distance is given by Eq. 共2兲. The experiments were con-
ducted decreasing the water 共second layer兲 level from
500 to 25 mm in steps of 50 mm and keeping the diesel fuel
layer thickness constant 共400 mm兲. The results are visible in
Fig. 7. The verification of the instrument correct behavior
was first done on the relative differences between the reflec-
tion coefficient decreases that occur at the two interfaces. In
this case, in fact, the reflection coefficient has no effect on
the results since the diesel layer level is constant, so the
uncertainty in the determination of the relative permittivity is
not present. If, instead of being constant, the first layer level
is changing, the uncertainty introduced by the determination
of the relative permittivity must be accounted for. Equation
共2兲 must then be used to derive the overall uncertainty of the
measurement. The uncertainty in the detection of the total
level in the tank is ±2 mm, as well as that determined in the
detection of the interface level changes.
In the determination of the absolute position of the sec-
ond interface, the relative permittivity must be taken into
consideration. It can be determined by measuring known lev-
els of the liquid being investigated and comparing them to
the apparent distances given by the measurement sensor. In
this case the uncertainty achieved is ±3 mm. Another source
of uncertainty in this type of measurements is the presence of
an emulsion layer between the two liquids. If the measure-
ment is made before the emulsion layer has disappeared, the
uncertainty in the interface position is increased.
DISCUSSION
The liquid level and interface measurement system pre-
sented in this paper is operated based on TDR and employs
specially designed probes that make it suitable for low rela-

FIG. 6. Signals obtained for increased diesel layer level. FIG. 7. Signals obtained for increased diesel layer level.
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 095107-5 A TDR-based liquid level sensor
1
tive permittivity and sticky products. High accuracy is also
obtained when turbulence is present in the vessel. Tests con- 2
ducted on a reference tank showed uncertainties of ±2 mm in 3
the case of liquid level monitoring and ±3 mm in the case of
4
liquid-liquid interface detection. The conditions in which an
interface between two liquids can still be measured with high 5
6
accuracy were determined experimentally and correspond to
a difference of at least 10 between the relative permittivities
7
and a top layer thickness of at least 60 mm. Advantages of-
fered by the use of this technique in the field of level moni- 8
toring are low uncertainty, high resolutions, even at long
9
distances, and substantial insensitivity to variations of tem-
perature, pressure, and liquid density. These features are not 10
offered by conventional sensors used for the same applica-
11
tions, and this certainly makes guided-wave radars the
12
most promising technique for the future of liquid level
13
monitoring.
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Rev. Sci. Instrum. 76, 095107 共2005兲
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