ULTRASONIC REAL-TIME MONITORING OF CAKE STRUCTURE DURING SLIP CASTING

An ultrasonic monitoring system was developed which utilizes two longitudinal transducers configured in a pulse-echo mode to monitor the structure of a growing slip cast cake. By applying appropriate volume conservation equations to the planar, uniaxial casting apparatus, it is shown that the cake permeability and local volume fraction of voids in a cake can be measured while casting is taking place, Values obtained from the ultrasound measurements mere compared to traditional methods of measuring cake permeability and cake porosity, Reasonable agreement was found, Advantages of the ultrasound technique over traditional methods, as well as limitations of the technique, are discussed.