Estimation of concentrations of ternary solution with NaCl and sucrose based on multifunctional sensing technique

Ternary solution with NaCl and sucrose is widely employed in the osmotic dehydration process of food. In this paper we present a multifunctional sensor capable of directly sensing temperature and two physical parameters of solutions, namely ultrasonic velocity and electrical conductivity. By combination measurement of these three measurable parameters, the concentrations of various components in ternary solution with NaCl and sucrose can be simultaneously determined. A regression algorithm based on natural cubic spline interpolation and the least squares method is developed to estimate the concentrations of NaCl and sucrose, which considers the temperature influence on the multifunctional sensor and then enables decoupling of the reconstruction of concentrations in 4D space into 3D space. This sensor could prove valuable as a process control sensor in food industry.