Determining Liquid Properties Using Mechanically Vibrating Sensors

Miniaturized sensors for physical liquid parameters can be utilized in applications where liquids in industrial processes are monitored in order to maintain the quality of a process or the associated product. Due to the adverse properties commonly associated with chemical interfaces(lacking reversibility, drift, etc.), sensing physical parameters as indicators for the state of the liquid, in particularly density, viscosity(or more general rheological properties), and infrared absorption is an attractive alternative to conventional chemical sensors. The miniaturization of suitable sensor principles on the one hand facilitates the implementation of these devices online. On the other hand, scaling effect have to be taken into account, which, e.g., in case of viscosity sensors, lead to issues when it comes to applications in complex liquids such as suspensions. In our paper we provide an overview on our recent work discussing the device design, the associated modeling, and the application of the devices