Parametric dependencies for photoacoustic leak localization

Unintended gas or liquid leaks from manufactured components or manufacturing systems may be detrimental to consumers, manufacturers, and the environment. Thus, leak testing is important for quality, safety, and environmental reasons. This paper describes parametric dependencies for photoacoustic leak localization. The technique is based on the interaction of 10.6-micrometer radiation from a carbon dioxide (CO2) laser and a photoactive tracer gas, sulfur hexafluoride (SF6). For the current investigations, acoustic signals are generated by scanning a laser beam at high speed through gas plumes formed above calibrated leaks. These signals are remotely measured with a four-microphone linear array and analyzed using Bartlett and minimum-variance-distortionless (MVD) matched-field processing (MFP) techniques to determine leak location. This paper extends prior work in photoacoustic leak testing through (i) use of more signal frequencies; (ii) parametric study of four different laser scan rates; and (iii) examination of mismatch between the actual acoustic environment and the propagation model used in the MFP; and (iv) presentation of leak localization results on a curved surface. For a 12-watt CO2 laser exciting the small SF6 gas plume produced by a one-cm3-per-day leak with microphones placed 0.41 m from the leak location, root-mean-square localization uncertainties as small as +/-0.5 mm on a line scan of 0.46 m can be achieved when the largest possible number of signal frequencies fall in a measurement bandwidth of approximately 70 kHz.     

基于可调谐半导体激光器吸收光谱的高灵敏度甲烷浓度遥测技术

讨论了一种新的高灵敏度甲烷遥测方法,利用可调谐激光二极管的调制光谱技术扫描甲烷的吸收峰,通过在测量光路中插入参考气池,增强低浓度情况下的吸收峰辨识能力,以提高甲烷浓度遥测信号的信噪比.此外,可以将激光器的中心波长锁定至气体吸收峰的峰值位置从而使仪器工作于吸收峰锁定模式,进行甲烷浓度的连续监测.实验结果表明,在测量距离分别为10 m和20 m时,周围环境中的甲烷积分浓度探测极限可以分别达到5 ppm·m和16 ppm·m.在吸收峰锁定工作模式下,系统在37 m距离处具有22 ppm·m的检出限,并可以监测甲烷浓度的快速变化.     

Detecting pipe changes via acoustic matched field processing

Detecting pipe irregularities such as intrusions can be challenging. However, subtle changes can be identified in the complex acoustic fields measured over a range of frequencies and over a time interval given an “array” of receivers. In particular, for two receivers one can coherently process the signals via matched field processing (MFP) to infer whether or not there have been changes such as new intrusions relative to undisturbed fields measured earlier. There is no acoustic modelling of the fields required, only the simple linear processor is applied, and only test data (five scenarios) are used in this demonstration. A key advantage to using MFP plus two (or more) microphones is that absolute sound levels need not be carefully measured.     

Rapid-scan EPR with triangular scans and fourier deconvolution to recover the slow-scan spectrum

Direct-detected rapid-scan EPR signals were recorded using triangular field scan rates between 1.7 and 150 kG/s for deoxygenated samples of lithium phthalocyanine (LiPc) and Nycomed trityl-CD3. These scan rates are rapid relative to the reciprocals of the electron spin relaxation times and cause characteristic oscillations in the signals. Fourier deconvolution with an analytical function permitted recovery of lineshapes that are in good agreement with experimental slow-scan spectra. Unlike slow-scan EPR, direct detection rapid-scan EPR does not use phase sensitive detection and records the absorption signal directly instead of the first derivative of the absorption signal. The amplitude of the signal decreases approximately linearly with applied magnetic field gradient. Images of phantoms constructed from samples of LiPc and trityl-CD3 were reconstructed by filtered back-projection from data sets with a missing angle. The lineshapes in spectral slices from the image are in good agreement with slow-scan spectra and the spacing between sample tubes matches well with the known sample geometry.     

声源检测与定位的多分辨处理

实现声源的检测与定位,传统的阵处理方法是常规BF/MFP或基于子空间的BF/MFP,它们都是属于单分辨处理。事实上,阵信号中存在着多分辨结构,值得开发与利用,以提高检测与定位能力,且特别有利于改善BF和MFP的失配宽容性。本文对多路径传播波的时-空多分辨建模及相应的多分辨聚焦处理进行了研究,并对实际海试数据作了分析,结果表明改善了MFP模糊度表面的性能。     

基于激光吸收光谱技术天然气管道泄漏定量遥测方法的研究

报道了基于激光吸收光谱学原理的天然气管道泄漏移动遥测技术,通过模拟天然气泄漏实验, 分析了移动遥测的关键技术问题.为了定量遥测天然气管道微量泄漏,引入一个和剩余幅度调制(RAM) 等值反相的信号对偏差进行补偿,降低RAM对谐波信号的影响,提高系统检测灵敏度. 针对遥测回波吸收光谱特征,提出了改进软阈值小波去噪法,就提高系统信噪比而言, 比传统软阈值去噪法高2倍多,同时对二次谐波(2f)信号形状也有很好的保留,通过探测限计算, 系统移动遥测灵敏度达到80 ppm/m.     

基于7.6μm量子级联激光的光声光谱探测N_2O气体

近年来,气候变化对地球的生态环境产生严重影响,而大气温室气体在气候变化中具有重要的作用.一氧化二氮(N_2O)作为一种重要的温室气体,其浓度变化对大气环境产生重要影响,因此对其浓度的探测在大气环境研究中具有重要意义.本文开展了基于中国自主研发的7.6μm中红外量子级联激光的共振型光声光谱探测N_2O的研究,建立了N_2O光声光谱传感实验系统.此系统在传统的光声光谱探测的基础上优化改进,采用双光束增强的方式,增加了有效光功率,进一步提高了系统的探测灵敏度.探测系统以1307.66 cm~(-1)处的N_2O吸收谱线作为探测对象,结合波长调制技术对N_2O气体进行探测研究.通过对一定浓度的N_2O气体在不同调制频率和调制振幅的光声信号的探测,确定了系统的最佳调制频率和调制振幅分别为800 Hz和90 mV.在最优实验条件下对不同浓度的N_2O气体进行了测量,获得了系统的信号浓度定标曲线.实验表明,在锁相积分时间为30 ms时,系统的浓度探测极限为150×10~(-9).通过100次平均后,系统噪声进一步降低,实现了大气N_2O的探测,浓度探测极限达到了37×10~(-9).     

一种移动式遥测天然气泄漏检测仪

天然气管道泄漏检测对人员安全、环境保护以及国家财产安全等具有重要的意义,但是,由于管线跨越地域广阔,操作工况以及环境情况复杂,致使管线的泄漏检测存在困难。文章介绍了一种基于波长扫描差分吸收光谱技术的移动式遥测天然气泄漏检测仪。针对遥测回波吸收光谱特性,提出了基于小波变换的改进型软阈值小波去噪方法,实验分析能够提高系统信噪比3倍多,同时在遥测光强为530nA时,可达到的最小遥测灵敏度为80ppm.m,系统采用波长扫描差分吸收光谱技术成功实现天然气泄漏的定量遥测与准确定位,具有快速、准确、智能及安全等特点。     

The effect of errors and detector noise on sensitive detection of chirp and pulse asymmetry of ultrashort laser pulses from interferometric autocorrelation signals

We have studied the effect of various types of systematic and non-systematic errors on unbalanced spectrally modified interferometric autocorrelation signals for detection of pulse chirp and asymmetry of ultrashort laser pulses. The effect of systematic errors arising due to limited number of data points per fringe, scan rate etc, and non-systematic errors due to phase noise, additive noise, multiplicative noise and quantization of interferometric autocorrelation (IAC) signals is illustrated using a linearly chirped asymmetric laser pulse. It is seen that the spectrally modified IAC signals based on difference of normalized envelope functions corresponding to different frequencies are not much sensitive to various noises, permitting their use for sensitive detection of pulse chirp and asymmetry. The analysis is supported by experimentally recorded IAC signals under different conditions.     

The contribution of high frequencies to human brain activity underlying horizontal localization of natural spatial sounds

Background  

In the field of auditory neuroscience, much research has focused on the neural processes underlying human sound localization. A recent magnetoencephalography (MEG) study investigated localization-related brain activity by measuring the N1m event-related response originating in the auditory cortex. It was found that the dynamic range of the right-hemispheric N1m response, defined as the mean difference in response magnitude between contralateral and ipsilateral stimulation, reflects cortical activity related to the discrimination of horizontal sound direction. Interestingly, the results also suggested that the presence of realistic spectral information within horizontally located spatial sounds resulted in a larger right-hemispheric N1m dynamic range. Spectral cues being predominant at high frequencies, the present study further investigated the issue by removing frequencies from the spatial stimuli with low-pass filtering. This resulted in a stepwise elimination of direction-specific spectral information. Interaural time and level differences were kept constant. The original, unfiltered stimuli were broadband noise signals presented from five frontal horizontal directions and binaurally recorded for eight human subjects with miniature microphones placed in each subject's ear canals. Stimuli were presented to the subjects during MEG registration and in a behavioral listening experiment.     

Wind noise at microphones within and across hearing aids at wind speeds below and above microphone saturation

The variation of wind noise at hearing-aid microphones with wind speed, wind azimuth, and hearing-aid style was investigated. Comparisons were made across behind-the-ear (BTE) and completely-in-canal (CIC) devices, and between microphones within BTE devices. One CIC device and two BTE devices were placed on a Knowles Electronics Manikin for Acoustic Research. The smaller BTE device had vented plastic windshields around its microphone ports while the larger BTE device had none. The microphone output signals were digitally recorded in wind generated at 0, 3, 6, and 12 m/s at 8 wind azimuths. The microphone output signals were saturated at 12 m/s with wind-noise levels of up to 116 dB SPL at the microphone output. Wind-noise levels differed by up to 12 dB between microphones within the same BTE device, and across BTE devices by up to 6 or 8 dB for front or rear microphones, respectively. On average, wind-noise levels were lowest with the CIC device and highest at the rear microphone of the smaller BTE device. Engineering and clinical implications are discussed.     

固定干扰源存在下的管道泄漏检测和准确定位

为了解决固定位置的声/振动干扰源引起的管道泄漏声检测的虚警或者漏点定位错误问题,利用泄漏信号源和固定干扰源之间的独立性,通过盲卷源分离算法得到泄漏信号在一定代价函数下的最优估计,并将该估计作为输入信号从检测信号中自适应预测得到泄漏信号,这样就可以保留泄漏信号中的时延信息。对实际检测信号的处理表明,应用提出来的方法可以有效的去除检测信号中来自固定干扰源的噪声,同时不损失泄漏信号中的时延信息,可在固定干扰源存在时实现管道泄漏有效检测和准确定位。     

天然气管道泄漏可调谐二极管激光遥感探测的研究

天然气管道泄漏不仅造成经济损失而且是危险之源。传统的天然气管道泄漏检测技术效率低、速度慢,难以满足实际应用的需要。近年来以近红外二极管激光吸收光谱为基础的光学传感器由于具有灵敏度高、体积小、重量轻和无需维护等优点而得到了广泛的应用。文章以可调谐二极管激光吸收光谱和谐波探测技术为基础进行天然气管道泄漏遥感探测技术的研究,采用二次谐波与一次谐波信号的比值作为系统浓度标定,结果显示浓度与比值之间具有较好的一致性。文章还就不同地形散射体对探测结果的影响进行了测量和分析,实验结果表明二次谐波与一次谐波信号比值标定技术对便携式二极管激光光学测量能够很好的满足实际应用的需要。     

匹配场处理舰船辐射噪声级估计方法

针对水声信道对舰船辐射噪声声传播的影响,进而导致声源级测量结果不准确的问题,提出了基于匹配场处理的舰船辐射噪声级估计方法。在海洋环境噪声为空间均匀高斯白噪声的假设下,当海洋环境参数已知、信噪比满足一定要求时,匹配场处理能有效地给出被测噪声源的位置信息及该位置处的能量响应。从能量估计角度出发,推导了声源位置处匹配场输出响应的能量修正因子计算公式,从理论上证明了匹配场处理在被测声源位置处输出响应与能量修正因子的乘积为真实声源级的最小方差无偏(MVU)估计。该方法首先选择合适的声场计算模型计算拷贝场向量,对接收到的辐射噪声信号进行匹配场处理,得出接收信号级和被测声源位置;其次利用该位置所对应的拷贝场向量替换能量修正因子公式中的真实信道传输函数以计算能量修正因子的估计值;最后由接收信号级与能量修正因子估计值相乘得出舰船辐射噪声声源级的MVU估计。针对典型的浅海水声信道,进行了计算机仿真试验,结果表明:该方法能有效地进行舰船辐射噪声测量,当信噪比满足一定要求时,测量得到的声源级与实际声源级相比,误差小于1 dB。     

水下平台对卫星上行激光通信研究

在合理选择通信系统参量和通信信道参量的基础上,利用Monte Carlo方法模拟了卫星接收到的水下平台上行激光通信信号.分析了卫星接收信号的空间和时间分布特性,以及与望远镜接收视场角的关系,并计算了接收信号的信噪比,得出了3°望远镜视场角和15 μs信号积分时间的优化参量.基于计算结果,根据激光脉冲的PPM调制方式和最大似然检测方法,计算了系统的通信误码率,同时分析了海气界面、云等传输介质对通信的影响.研究结果表明:根据文中给定通信系统参量,在典型海水、海气界面、云等环境条件下,卫星与激光信号中心水平距离5 km范围内信号误码率<10－4.因此位于水下60 m的水下平台可能实现对卫星上行激光通信.     

Gas sensing by tunable multimode diode laser using correlation spectroscopy

A novel method to use multimode diode lasers for gas detection is demonstrated. The relationship between the intensity decay of partially absorbed multiple modes and the target gas concentration is presented. The gas concentration is retrieved by a linear-regression-based procedure applied on simultaneously recorded absorption signals in a dual-beam wavelength-modulation configuration. Signals of non-gas origin or disturbed by interfering gases are effectively eliminated by correlation analysis procedure. Light intensity fluctuations and wavelength shifts due to temperature drift are automatically compensated for. Several absorption signals can readily be obtained within a limited tuning range by overlapping the laser multimode chart with the target gas spectrum. This scheme was applied on the detection of trace acetylene mixed in ambient air, and a sensitivity of 3 ppm was achieved with a 48.5 cm path length. The trade-off between sensitivity and reliability for retrieving gas concentration by multiple absorption signals is also presented.     

The cepstrum: a viable method for the removal of ground reflections

Noise data from open air test facilities is contaminated by the effect of ground reflections causing cancellations and augmentations of the sound at certain frequencies. This problem is generally dealt with by placing microphones near the ground and subtracting 6 dB from the SPL spectrum. However the high frequency part of the spectrum obtained in this way suffers from problems due to temperature gradients near the ground on sunny days. The present empirical method used at Rolls-Royce for the estimation of one third octave band free field spectra involves the use of two microphones, one at 0·051 m above the ground (ground level) for frequencies up to 1 kHz and the other at 1·524 m above the ground for higher frequencies. Corrections are applied to the one third octave spectra from these low and high microphones to take account of intensity increases. These spectra are then “married” at 1 kHz to produce a single free field spectrum. At present there is no similar method to obtain narrow band free field spectra. In this paper cepstrum analysis is proposed as a satisfactory method to produce both narrow band and one third octave band free field spectra from high level microphones only. A series of tests has been carried out in an anechoic chamber facility in which ground reflections were simulated. The cepstrum technique was applied to this data to deduce the free field spectra. These compared very well with free field spectra obtained under anechoic conditions. Data is also included from open air tests on the Viper 11 engine and the spinning rig jet noise facility to show that the cepstrum technique is a viable way of removing ground reflections from high level microphone data.     

Diode laser based in situ detection of alkali atoms: development of a new method for determination of residence-time distribution in combustion plants

The residence-time of the flue gas in a furnace is an important parameter for a complete and clean combustion. A new method to determine the residence-time has been developed and is presented for the first time. It is based on the injection of alkali compounds as a tracer. Alkali atoms that are produced by thermal decomposition of the tracer are detected in the hot flue gas after passage of the combustion facility. This is done without any gas sampling using direct tunable diode laser based absorption spectroscopy. Different diode laser (DL) types (Fabry–Pérot DLs, external-cavity DLs, and vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers) were analyzed and used to develop several spectrometers for the in situ detection of lithium (671 nm), potassium (770 nm), and rubidium (780 nm). Various spectrometers were built for single- or multi-species detection using a single laser, for time-multiplexed multi-species detection using two lasers, and for multi-path detection at two different locations along the flue-gas duct. To evaluate the system performance the potassium atom background caused by the fuel was continuously monitored in the post-combustion chamber (PCC) for several weeks. A typical concentration range of 1 ng to 1 μg at STP (800 ppq to 800 ppt; ppq=10^-15) was observed. By averaging 100 individual absorption scans the response time was 2.7 s. The minimum detectable absorption was about 10^-4 optical density, corresponding to a detection limit of 4×10¹¹ K atoms/m³ at 1200 K instead of ‘°K’. (K(D2) absorption line; 1.9-m absorption path). This is equivalent to a detection limit of 0.1 ng/m³ at STP or 80 ppq. The fastest response time (0.16 s) was achieved by evaluating single absorption scans. Two combustion facilities at the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe (a batch combustor and a 3-MW special waste incinerator with a rotary kiln followed by a PCC) were investigated. Alkali chlorides were added to the combustion chamber in different forms, of which short spray pulses of an aqueous salt solution was the method of choice for the residence-time measurement. Flow-time distributions were measured and the mean residence-time was calculated for various operation conditions. A simultaneous flow-time measurement at two different locations (8.4 m/17.0 m from the tracer discharge location) was realized with a binary K/Rb tracer and a multi-species spectrometer. Mean residence-times of (±) 151s and (±) 261s were observed and met the expected values. Received: 29 April 2002 / Revised version: 21 June 2002 / Published online: 2 September 2002 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +49-6221/5450-50, E-mail: volker.ebert@pci.uni-heidelberg.de This paper is dedicated to Prof. Dr. Gottfried Huttner on the occasion of his 65th birthday.     

The pyroelectric signal from triglycine sulphate

The pyroelectric signal from triglycine sulphate has been studied by a focussed He-Ne laser beam and a phase sensitive detection method. It is observed that anti-parallel domains give rise to pyroelectric signals of opposite polarity. The pyroelectric signal is zero when the laser spot is in between anti-parallel domains. The intensity of the pyroelectric signal is recorded and the domain structure is determined.     

CO在1. 578 μ m的可调谐二极管激光光谱信号小波去噪研究

研究了一氧化碳(CO)近红外波段直接吸收和波长调制信号去噪处理算法。从HATRAN数据库中得到CO气体的吸收信号作为仿真数据,提取直接吸收信号、1-f和2-f解调信号作为原始信号,研究了不同小波基以及不同的分解层数对叠加高斯白噪声的光谱信号去噪的效果。最后利用基长为0.95 m有效光程为55.1 m的Herriott型多光程池对CO在1.578 μm处的第二泛频带P(4)吸收谱线信号进行测量和信号处理,与原始信号相比,经过信号处理过的直接吸收、1-f和2-f解调信号的信噪比都提高1～2个数量级;通过选择不同小波基和优化小波变换层数,增加了系统的抗干扰能力。