Design and characteristics of a differential Helmholtz resonant photoacoustic cell for infrared gas detection

The Helmholtz resonant photoacoustic (PA) cell is a very convenient design of PA system for air pollution monitoring based on infrared molecular absorption. A simple differential Helmholtz resonator designed for flow measurements is presented in this work. The investigation of the PA systems characteristics based on this design includes experimental study of the responsitivity both of the separate photoacoustic cell and the whole photoacoustic system applied to trace gases detection. The experimental observations are compared to the theoretical predictions. A simple arrangement to enhance the photoacoustic signal of the whole system by a factor of 2 is presented.     

光声光谱气体检测系统中气体湿度的影响研究

工作环境是光声光谱气体检测系统在工业现场应用的重要影响因素.实验发现,待测气体湿度对电容式微音器灵敏度影响显著,导致现有光声光谱气体榆测系统测试结果漂移.文章提出一种气体湿度影响消除方法,在光声腔中安装扬声器,以扬声器信号幅值作为声感应器件灵敏度的自适应表征,对光声信号幅值作自行修正,有效克服电容式微音器声信号榆测中灵...     

红外甲烷气体浓度检测系统设计

为了精确测量甲烷气体的体积浓度,采用平行红外光源IRL715EN-PR设计了红外甲烷气体检测系统。整个检测系统由硬件电路和软件系统组成。在软件程序设计上设计了一种关于信号处理的新算法,同时设计了中断喂狗程序,大大延长了看门狗定时复位时间。利用Matlab对数据进行了拟合,得到了系统的浓度和电压的函数关系。实验表明,在体积浓度在0%~4%范围内,系统最大相对误差小于1%。     

Resonant photoacoustic gas sensing by PC-based audio detection

A new and simple technique for data acquisition and processing in an experiment of resonant photoacoustic detection is presented. It is based on the use of the sound card of a desk or laptop computer for digitizing the signal from a microphone enclosed in an acoustical cavity and further processing by a high-resolution fast Fourier transform. The system is applied to the detection of NO₂ traces in air at atmospheric pressure with an amplitude-modulated visible laser and the results are compared with those obtained by a lock-in amplifier. For the same acquisition time the results for the ultimate measurable concentration were 50 ppbV with this system and 130 ppbV with a lock-in amplifier. PACS 42.62.Fi; 82.80.Kq; 43.60.+d     

Tunable fiber laser based photoacoustic gas sensor for early fire detection

A photoacoustic gas sensor using a near-infrared tunable fiber laser and based on wavelength modulation spectroscopy technique is developed. This sensor is capable of quasi-simultaneous quantification of water vapour, acetylene, carbon dioxide, and carbon monoxide (H₂O, C₂H₂, CO and CO₂) concentrations in the fire emulator. The feasibility of using this sensor as an early fire detector was demonstrated. The fire warning gases from smoldering paper were measured. The peak concentrations of gases from smoldering paper were 20,300 ppm H₂O, 2.1 ppm C₂H₂, 756 ppm CO, and 1612 ppm CO₂ after 400 s.     

A new design of the differential photoacoustic gas detector combined with a cantilever microphone

A new prototype of a portable differential photoacoustic measurement system was designed and built. The system applies the gas filter correlation method. A blackbody radiator is used as a radiation source, which allows measurements of great variety of different IR absorbing gases. The prototype exploits the high sensitivity of a cantilever pressure sensor. The differential design allows a selective real time measurement for a single gas in open air or from the flowing sample. For the first time the photoacoustic cell geometry for an acceleration noise damping was integrated to a differential detector. The system has potential applications anywhere that sensitive in-situ-measurements are required: for example in process control technology, air quality monitoring, exhale monitoring, alarm devices and food industry. The measurement of nitric oxide was modeled in the presence of water vapor. As an example the concentration of water vapor, that is acceptable if ppb-level nitric oxide measurements are to be done, was calculated. With a typical band pass filter and a blackbody radiator the amount is 20 ppm with 1.3 s integration time. The concentration was also calculated to diode laser operating at 2.663 μm and quantum cascade laser at 5.263 μm. The respective concentrations were 2 ppm and 6600 ppm.     

Resonant photoacoustic detection of trace gas with DFB diode laser

A resonant photoacoustic detection system based on a low-power distributed feedback diode laser is developed. This sensor has been applied to the detection of acetylene (C₂H₂) using a specifically designed photoacoustic cell operating on its second longitudinal mode. The minimum detectable limit of about 10 parts-per-million volume (SNR=1) is achieved with an average laser power of 3.5 mW at atmospheric pressure, and an integration time constant of 3 ms; thus, the minimum detectable absorption coefficient normalised by power and bandwidth is 4.0×10⁻⁸ W cm⁻¹/√Hz. The optimum operating pressure buffered with N₂ is also investigated. The realisation of our system is described and experimental results are compared with different modulation techniques and other results reported in the literature. A number of issues arising from the conventional use of mechanical chopping of the beam can be effectively suppressed in wavelength modulation PA spectroscopy (WM-PAS) and second harmonic detection.     

Quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy-based sensor system for sulfur dioxide detection using a CW DFB-QCL

Sulfur dioxide (SO₂) trace gas detection based on quartz-enhanced photoacoustic spectroscopy (QEPAS) using a continuous wave, distributed feedback quantum cascade laser operating at 7.24 μm was performed. Influence of water vapor addition on monitored QEPAS SO₂ signal was also investigated. A normalized noise equivalent absorption coefficient of NNEA (1σ) = 1.21 × 10^?8 cm^?1 W Hz^?1/2 was obtained for the ν ₃ SO₂ line centered at 1,380.93 cm^?1 when the gas sample was moisturized with 2.3 % H₂O. This corresponds to a minimum detection limit (1σ) of 63 parts per billion by volume for a 1 s lock-in time constant.     

Simultaneous online detection of isoprene and isoprene-d2 using infrared photoacoustic spectroscopy

A photoacoustic spectrometer for the simultaneous detection of isoprene and the deuterated species [4,4-²H]-2-methyl-1,3-butadiene (isoprene-d₂) is presented. Using a sealed-off ¹³CO₂ laser a single-component detection limit of 400 ppt (isoprene) and 600 ppt (isoprene-d₂) was achieved. Simultaneous monitoring of both compounds allowed the detection of labelling levels down to 6% (isoprene-d₂ in total isoprene) with a time resolution of 3 min. In emission studies with Eucalyptus globulus, the deuterated precursor [4,4-²H]-1-deoxy-D-xylulose was fed to a leaf through the transpiration stream. Emission of isoprene-d₂ started as early as 10 min after application of the precursor. Received: 3 May 2002 / Revised version: 31 May 2002 / Published online: 21 August 2002 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +49-228/733474, E-mail: frank.kuehnemann@iap.uni-bonn.de     

Intracavity photoacoustic gas detection with an external cavity diode laser

The first use of an external cavity diode-laser light source in combination with a photoacoustic detector for high-sensitivity gas detection is described. This combined system is applicable for detecting gases with absorption coefficients as low as 5 x 10^–8 cm^–1 by operating the photoacoustic cell in an intracavity mode. Measurements were made on the 1.13 m absorption lines of water vapour. For quantitative measurements, it was found to be necessary to introduce a reference cell into the system.     

基于中红外分布反馈量子级联激光器的光声光谱技术用于痕量甲烷气体检测

由于工业监控和环境检测的需要,甲烷气体检测日益得到人们的关注。研究了基于中红外分布反馈量子级联激光器(DFB-QCL)的光声光谱技术,并应用于痕量甲烷的检测。自主研发的DFB-QCL室温工作时的激射波长在7.6μm附近,覆盖了甲烷的特征吸收谱线1 316.83cm-1。待测甲烷气体充入亥姆霍兹光声谐振腔中,DFB-QCL的工作频率为234Hz、室温脉冲工作时峰值功率为80mW。中红外光经过甲烷吸收后,产生的声波信号经麦克风检测,由锁相放大器对信号进行采集并输入计算机进行处理。按信噪比为1计算,得到甲烷的探测极限为189nmol.mol-1。     

Nonlinear photoacoustic response of opaque media in gas microphone signal detection

We have theoretically studied the effect of thermal nonlinearity, due to the temperature dependence of the thermophysical and optical parameters for thermally thick opaque media, on the characteristics of the fundamental photoacoustic signal when the signal is detected by a gas microphone. We have shown that the dependence of the amplitude of the nonlinear component of the signal on the intensity of the incident radiation I₀ is expressed by means of the dependence of the temperature rise for the irradiated sample surface Θ₀ on I₀, and the thermal nonlinearity does not affect the phase of the photoacoustic signal. We propose a theory for generation of the second harmonic of the photoacoustic signal. We have established that the phase shift of the photoacoustic signal is equal to 3π/4, while its amplitude depends on the frequency (∼ω^−3/2) and the intensity (∼ I ₀ ² ). __________ Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 73, No. 2, pp. 170–176, March–April, 2006.     

Step-scan photoacoustic infrared spectra of kaolinite

Photoacoustic spectra of kaolinite obtained with a step-scan FT-IR spectrometer are examined with respect to signal saturation and phase. At low modulation frequency, saturation facilitates observation of several weak bands; background intensity and saturation are reduced by recording the interferogram in quadrature, rather than in phase, with the excitation. Higher modulation frequency data can be improved qualitatively be calculating the difference between the quadrature and in-phase spectra.     

Comparison of visible and infrared spectrum of light sources

We compared the visible and the infrared spectrum of cesium and the sodium high pressure discharge light sources of 70 W power, run at different voltages from 180 to 240 V. Although the cesium discharge lamp exhibits remarkable white light in the visible spectrum, it suffers from the large infrared radiation intensity. The study of the causes of large infrared losses and their possible reduction was the main motivation for the present investigation. Sodium discharge plasma appears to be more efficient light source than the cesium discharge plasma due to the smaller infrared emission, although the latter has much better colour rendering index.     

一种基于形状的红外图像泄漏气体检测方法

针对工业生产中泄漏气体导致的爆炸和火灾问题, 提出一种基于形状和SVM分类的红外图像泄漏气体检测方法。采用泄漏气体和干扰物红外图像样本的形状特征训练SVM分类器, 通过对红外图像序列采用基于背景差分的运动检测得到候选目标区域, 再对候选目标区域提取其形状特征, 最后使用SVM分类器进行判别, 从而得到最终的检测结果。使用乙烯气体泄漏仿真数据进行实验, 检测率最高可达98%, 结果表明, 采用该方法可以有效检测泄漏气体, 相比其他方法, 极大地减少了干扰物造成的误检。     

红外气体传感器多光路光学系统设计

在实验研究的基础上分析了采用红外发光二极管为光源的气体传感器在设计中应考虑的几个因素。对四种设计方案进行了比较 ,从而提出了双光源四探测器的新型多光路光学系统设计方案。采用这种光学系统不但可以对温度、环境、气室尘染、器件失配等引起的干扰进行补偿 ,而且还可以对由光源发光功率和探测器响应度变化引起的传感器灵敏度的波动进行补偿。对新光学系统进行的实验分析表明 ,该光学系统的长期工作稳定性和温度稳定性都优于其它设计方案     

Quantum-cascade laser photoacoustic detection of methane emitted from natural gas powered engines

In this work we present a laser photoacoustic arrangement for the detection of the important greenhouse gas methane. A quantum-cascade laser and a differential photoacoustic cell were employed. A detection limit of 45 ppbv in nitrogen was achieved as well as a great selectivity. The same methodology was also tested in the detection of methane issued from natural gas powered vehicles (VNG) in Brazil, which demonstrates the excellent potential of this arrangement for greenhouse gas detection emitted from real sources.     

Comparison study of photoacoustic and ultrasound spectrum analysis in osteoporosis detection

Osteoporosis is a progressive bone disease,which is characterized by a decrease in the bone mass and deterioration in bone micro-architecture.In theory,photoacoustic(PA) analysis has the potential to obtain the characteristics of the bone effectively.In this study,we try to compare the PA spectral analysis(PASA) method with the quantitative ultrasound(QUS) method in osteoporosis assessment.We compare the quantified parameter slope from the PASA and broadband ultrasound attenuation from QUS among different bone models,respectively.Both the simulation and ex vivo experiment results show that bone with lower bone mineral density has the higher slope in the PASA method.Our comparison study proves that the PASA method has the same efficiency as QUS in osteoporosis assessment.