3D imaging based on fringe effect of an electrical capacitance tomography sensor

•3D ECT imaging based on fringe effect is further investigated in details.•Comparison between imaging results with different measurement scenarios.•The use of different reconstruction algorithms and data interpolation methods.•Experimental verification of the proposed method.

Conventionally, electrical capacitance tomography (ECT) provides 2D images. While 3D imaging by ECT with multi-plane electrodes has been attempted, 3D imaging with a single-plane ECT sensor is a new topic. While it has been confirmed that a 3D imaging method based on the fringe effect of a single-plane ECT sensor is feasible for imaging of a metallic object in a high permittivity background, this paper presents further investigation into imaging a metal object or a dielectric object in a low permittivity background. Different image reconstruction algorithms and data interpolation methods are used. This proposed method has been verified both by simulation and experiment.