Beamforming correction for dipole measurement using two-dimensional microphone arrays

In this paper, a beamforming correction for identifying dipole sources by means of phased microphone array measurements is presented and implemented numerically and experimentally. Conventional beamforming techniques, which are developed for monopole sources, can lead to significant errors when applied to reconstruct dipole sources. A previous correction technique to microphone signals is extended to account for both source location and source power for two-dimensional microphone arrays. The new dipole-beamforming algorithm is developed by modifying the basic source definition used for beamforming. This technique improves the previous signal correction method and yields a beamformer applicable to sources which are suspected to be dipole in nature. Numerical simulations are performed, which validate the capability of this beamformer to recover ideal dipole sources. The beamforming correction is applied to the identification of realistic aeolian-tone dipoles and shows an improvement of array performance on estimating dipole source powers.     

传声器阵列波束比判决语音增强方法

针对单一波束形成器难以深度抑制空间相干干扰的问题,提出了一种综合了最小方差无畸变响应波束形成器与对称子阵延时求和波束形成器的语音增强方法。定义了一种波束输出比因子,根据该因子在目标声区域和干扰声区域的幅值变化,给出了采样协方差矩阵对角加载量的调整方法,并进一步利用该因子在后滤波环节对空间干扰进行判决滤波。文中对判决滤波时的上限阈值和下限阈值的实时更新方法给出了说明。所提出的算法能进一步抑制空间干扰和噪声,且可满足实时需要。在传声器圆阵上的实验表明,该方法在输出信干噪比及语音质量上,均优于经典对角加载算法及采样协方差矩阵扫描重构算法。     

A covariance fitting approach for correlated acoustic source mapping

Microphone arrays are commonly used for noise source localization and power estimation in aeroacoustic measurements. The delay-and-sum (DAS) beamformer, which is the most widely used beamforming algorithm in practice, suffers from low resolution and high sidelobe level problems. Therefore, deconvolution approaches, such as the deconvolution approach for the mapping of acoustic sources (DAMAS), are often used for extracting the actual source powers from the contaminated DAS results. However, most deconvolution approaches assume that the sources are uncorrelated. Although deconvolution algorithms that can deal with correlated sources, such as DAMAS for correlated sources, do exist, these algorithms are computationally impractical even for small scanning grid sizes. This paper presents a covariance fitting approach for the mapping of acoustic correlated sources (MACS), which can work with uncorrelated, partially correlated or even coherent sources with a reasonably low computational complexity. MACS minimizes a quadratic cost function in a cyclic manner by making use of convex optimization and sparsity, and is guaranteed to converge at least locally. Simulations and experimental data acquired at the University of Florida Aeroacoustic Flow Facility with a 63-element logarithmic spiral microphone array in the absence of flow are used to demonstrate the performance of MACS.     

Eigenspace-based minimum variance beamformer combined with Wiener postfilter for medical ultrasound imaging

In this paper, a new beamformer which combines the eigenspace-based minimum variance (ESBMV) beamformer with the Wiener postfilter is proposed for medical ultrasound imaging. The primary goal of this work is to further improve the medical ultrasound imaging quality on the basis of the ESBMV beamformer. In this method, we optimize the ESBMV weights with a Wiener postfilter. With the optimization of the Wiener postfilter, the output power of the new beamformer becomes closer to the actual signal power at the imaging point than the ESBMV beamformer. Different from the ordinary Wiener postfilter, the output signal and noise power needed in calculating the Wiener postfilter are estimated respectively by the orthogonal signal subspace and noise subspace constructed from the eigenstructure of the sample covariance matrix.We demonstrate the performance of the new beamformer when resolving point scatterers and cyst phantom using both simulated data and experimental data and compare it with the delay-and-sum (DAS), the minimum variance (MV) and the ESBMV beamformer. We use the full width at half maximum (FWHM) and the peak-side-lobe level (PSL) to quantify the performance of imaging resolution and the contrast ratio (CR) to quantify the performance of imaging contrast. The FWHM of the new beamformer is only 15%, 50% and 50% of those of the DAS, MV and ESBMV beamformer, while the PSL is 127.2 dB, 115 dB and 60 dB lower. What is more, an improvement of 239.8%, 232.5% and 32.9% in CR using simulated data and an improvement of 814%, 1410.7% and 86.7% in CR using experimental data are achieved compared to the DAS, MV and ESBMV beamformer respectively. In addition, the effect of the sound speed error is investigated by artificially overestimating the speed used in calculating the propagation delay and the results show that the new beamformer provides better robustness against the sound speed errors. Therefore, the proposed beamformer offers a better performance than the DAS, MV and ESBMV beamformer, showing its potential in medical ultrasound imaging.     

Signal processing efficiency of Doppler global velocimetry with laser frequency modulation

Novel Doppler global velocimeters using laser frequency modulation can optically measure flow velocity fields and offer promising perspectives, but so far unknown limits, for achieving low measurement uncertainties. One approach, e.g. is based on sinusoidal frequency modulation and a harmonic signal analysis. In order to determine the minimum achievable measurement uncertainty, the known theorem of Cramér and Rao is applied to a derived signal model, initially excluding the harmonic signal analysis. For a typical scattered light power of 1 nW and a desired temporal resolution of 16 ms, the calculated minimum velocity standard deviation amounts to 0.02 and 0.06 m/s for signal dependent (quantum shot) noise and signal independent (thermal and dark current) noise, respectively. It is subsequently investigated, how efficient the harmonic signal analysis extracts the Fisher information content. The ratio of the Cramér-Rao lower bound and the estimated measurement uncertainty, where the signal processing is taken into account, was found to be >75% in terms of standard deviations in the entire measurement range of about . For the challenge of measuring velocity fields in turbomachine flows (requirements: 5 kHz measurement rate, ≤1% statistical error, velocities (50-240) m/s), the presented results indicate a necessary minimum scattered light power of 1.5 nW, which seems feasible.     

Attenuation and depolarization of millimeter waves due to incoherent scattering in tropical rainfall

The radiative transfer equation has been applied to investigate the effects of multiple scattering on communication at the millimeter wavelength in tropical rain. Horizontal linearly polarized incident waves are assumed. The scattering characteristics are calculated using the Mie theory at frequencies of 16, 34.8, 82, 140 and and at rainfall rates of 12.5, 50 and . Some results of the directional patterns of the incoherent intensities at various points in the rain medium are presented. The frequency dependence of the propagation distance, attenuation coefficient and the variation of incoherent specific intensities in tropical rainfall are investigated. The incoherent power at the receiver relative to the coherent power, which is important in assessing the quality of signal in the receiver, is also investigated. It is observed that the maximum incoherent copolarized received power is about in tropical rainfall at rainfall rate. Also the difference between the copolarized incoherent power in tropical and temperate rainfall is about at frequencies higher than , and about for the cross-polarized incoherent power components. It may therefore be safely said that multiple scattering may not result in serious degradation of the coherent wave component even in the most intense tropical precipitation. It also appears that it is independent of regional rainfall climatology.     

Simultaneous diode laser based in situ quantification of oxygen, carbon monoxide, water vapor, and liquid water in a dense water mist environment

We designed a three-channel tunable diode laser absorption spectrometer to make simultaneous in situ measurements of oxygen, carbon monoxide and water vapor in fire environments to aid in the evaluation of water-based fire suppression systems. The instrument also provides simultaneous information on the liquid water content via optical density measurements by evaluation of the captured direct absorption waveforms. We evaluated the spectrometer in a 1350 L test enclosure containing a small propane flame and a piezoelectric generated water mist of sub-10 μm drops. Mist drop number densities were on the order of 10⁶ cm⁻³ resulting in transmission losses of greater than 99.99% for a sample pathlength of 21.6 cm. We were able to detect and quantify oxygen from transmission levels of 100% down to 0.01% with uncertainties of 0.1 and 0.4 vol%, respectively. The water vapor concentration uncertainty never exceeded 0.06 vol% even during times of heavy mist loading. Carbon monoxide levels produced in the test enclosure were below the 250 ppm detection limit determined from analysis of the noise levels in our detected signals. The liquid water content uncertainty was less than for values that typically reached .     

Development of a multi-microphone calibrator

This paper presents the theory, design, and validation of a microphone calibrator used to simultaneously calibrate the amplitudes of multiple microphones on a single probe. The probe uses four 6 mm diameter electret microphones to acquire the data needed to compute acoustic energy density. This probe has prompted the need for simultaneous, multi-microphone amplitude calibration. The calibration process simultaneously subject each microphone on the probe to the same known acoustic pressure using four equal-length, small-diameter tubes connected to a single excitation source. A reference microphone connected to a fifth tube is used to calibrate the microphones. Test results show that the calibrator can calibrate each probe microphone within ±0.5 dB up to 2 kHz, and within ±1 dB up to 4.9 Hz with a confidence level of 95%.     

Problems with power content beam parameter product

The M² beam propagation factor is widely used to characterize the quality of laser radiation and its propagation. When M² is defined by the second-moments, M² ? 1 holds in the paraxial approach. For many applications it is more convenient to use the power content values (normally η = 86.5%), also proposed by ISO. For the corresponding power content factor, it is often assumed that also holds. We have demonstrated previously that for a superposition of two coherent Gauss-Laguerre modes with radial symmetry, the 86.5% value of [6]. In recent years, has also been presented experimentally for a superposition of axially shifted Gaussian beams [7]. The problems with power content for axial superposition of Gaussian beams are discussed. In this paper it is shown that the 86.5% power content value can not be smaller than one for a coherent superposition of axially shifted Gaussian beams with radial symmetry presented in Ref. [7]. A superposition of two Gaussian beams with different waists and without shift is also discussed, and the corresponding of such beam can be smaller than one, depending strongly on the power content value η. For low power content values η and a large (or very small) ratio of the two different waists approaches zero. These investigations demonstrate that is not a suitable parameter to characterize laser radiation.     

Vibronic spectra, ab initio calculations, and structures of conformationally non-rigid molecules of oxalyl halides in the ground and lowest excited electronic states - Part VI: Oxalyl bromide (COBr)2 and summary

The structure of oxalyl bromide (COBr)₂ in the ground and four lowest excited electronic states was theoretically investigated using the CASPT2/cc-pVTZ-DK method. Structural information obtained allowed the reassignment of the and vibronic absorption spectra. Generalization of oxalyl halide structural data for the ground and excited electronic states is presented.     

On the preparation of clean tungsten single crystals

The cleaning procedure consists of two-step-flashing: (i) cycles of low power flashes at an oxygen partial pressure of , to remove the carbon from the surface, and (ii) a single high power flash , to remove the oxide layer. The removal of carbon from the surface through the chemical reaction with oxygen during low power flash cycles is monitored by thermal desorption spectroscopy. The exposure to O₂ leads to the oxidation of the W surface. Using a high power flash, the volatile W-oxides and the atomic oxygen are desorbed, leaving a clean crystal surface at the end of procedure. The method may also be used for cleaning other refractory metals like Mo, Re and Ir.     

蒙特卡罗方法评定峰值检波器标定不确定度北大核心CSCD

针对高功率微波(HPM)脉冲测试用峰值检波器标定不确定度评估中测量函数非显式,直接测量量与被测量间概率分布传递困难等问题,研究建立了蒙特卡罗分析方法(MCM),利用有限带宽S参数网络时域响应计算原理建立了检波器标定系统的时域仿真模型,模型包含标定系统各微波器件S参数、检波电压、监测峰值功率等直接测量量,以及微波脉冲反射、叠加及传输延迟等物理过程。根据MCM原理对模型中各直接测量量引入特定分布的随机误差,通过重复计算,获得了检波器标定曲线的不确定度及其概率分布。     

Comparison of |Q|=1 and |Q|=2 gauge-field configurations on the lattice four-torus

It is known that exactly self-dual gauge-field configurations with topological charge |Q|=1 cannot exist on the untwisted continuum four-torus. We explore the manifestation of this remarkable fact on the lattice four-torus for SU(3) using advanced techniques for controlling lattice discretization errors, extending earlier work of De Forcrand et al. for SU(2). We identify three distinct signals for the instability of |Q|=1 configurations, and show that these signals manifest themselves early in the cooling process, long before the would-be instanton has shrunk to a size comparable to the lattice discretization threshold. These signals do not appear for the individual instantons which make up our |Q|=2 configurations. This indicates that these signals reflect the truly global nature of the instability, rather than the local discretization effects which cause the eventual disappearance of the would-be single instanton. Monte-Carlo generated SU(3) gauge-field configurations are cooled to the self-dual limit using an -improved gauge action chosen to have small but positive errors. This choice prevents lattice discretization errors from destroying instantons provided their size exceeds the dislocation threshold of the cooling algorithm. Lattice discretization errors are evaluated by comparing the -improved gauge-field action with an -improved action constructed from the square of an -improved lattice field-strength tensor, thus having different discretization errors. The number of action-density peaks, the instanton size, and the topological charge of configurations is monitored. We observe a fluctuation in the total topological charge of |Q|=1 configurations, and demonstrate that the onset of this unusual behavior corresponds with the disappearance of multiple-peaks in the action density. At the same time discretization errors are minimal.     

The near-infrared spectrum of a Th/Ar hollow cathode lamp

An analysis is presented for a Th/Ar hollow cathode spectrum covering the 1798- region of the near-infrared. The wave numbers and intensities of the lines should be of use in the calibration of spectra as well as in the level analysis of atomic thorium.