Development of 2D Temperature and Concentration Measurement Method Using Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy

Exhaust gas temperature is an important factor in NOx, THC and PM emissions of engines. Especially 2D temperature and concentration distribution plays an important role for the engine efficiency. A thermocouple is intrinsically a point temperature measurement method and noncontact 2D temperature distribution cannot be attained by thermocouples. Recently, as a measurement technique with high sensitivity and high response, laser diagnostics has been developed and applied to the actual engine combustions. With these engineering developments, transient phenomena such as start-ups and load changes in engines have been gradually elucidated in various conditions. In this study, the theoretical and experimental research has been conducted in order to develop the noncontact and fast response 2D temperature and concentration distribution measurement method. The method is based on a Computed Tomography （CT） method using absorption spectra of water vapor at 1388 nm. It has been demonstrated that the method has been successfully applied to engine exhausts to measure 2D temperature distributions.

Measurements of argon metastable density using the tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy in Ar and Ar/O2

Densities of Ar metastable states 1s5 and 1s3 are measured by using the tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy（TDLAS） in Ar and Ar/O2 mixture dual-frequency capacitively coupled plasma（DF-CCP）. We investigate the effects of high-frequency（HF, 60 MHz） power, low-frequency（LF, 2 MHz） power, and working pressure on the density of Ar metastable states for three different gas components（0%, 5%, and 10% oxygen mixed in argon）. The dependence of Ar metastable state density on the oxygen content is also studied at different working pressures. It is found that densities of Ar metastable states in discharges with different gas components exhibit different behaviors as HF power increases. With the increase of HF power, the metastable density increases rapidly at the initial stage, and then tends to be saturated at a higher HF power. With a small fraction（5% or 10%） of oxygen added in argon plasma, a similar change of the Ar metastable density with HF power can be observed, but the metastable density is saturated at a higher HF power than in the pure argon discharge. In the DF-CCP, the metastable density is found to be higher than in a single frequency discharge, and has weak dependence on LF power. As working pressure increases, the metastable state density first increases and then decreases,and the pressure value, at which the density maximum occurs, decreases with oxygen content increasing. Besides, adding a small fraction of oxygen into argon plasma will significantly dwindle the metastable state density as a result of quenching loss by oxygen molecules.

Application of Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy with Optical Hollow Fiber to Engine Exhaust Gas Measurement

In recent years, tighter regulation has been already enforced on harmful substances such as NOx, CO, and particles. Considering the above situation, it is important to monitor controlling factors of engine systems in order to improve efficiencies of their operations. As to car engines, an increasing concern in environmental issues such as air pollution, global warming and petroleum depletion has helped drive researches into various ways. Laser diagnostics has been applied to measure species concentration in the actual industrial fields. However there are several challenges to proceed in applying laser diagnostics to practical application. Especially stability of the measurement system is one of the most difficult issues. The purpose of this research is the development of a prompt measurement technique which can be applicable to various engine conditions. The Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy （TDLAS） using the hollow fiber has been developed to satisfy above requirements. By using a hollow fiber, misalignment of an optical axis and vulnerability of measurement environment such as vibration can be greatly reduced with sensitive and fast response features. It was demonstrated that this method can be applicable to measure gas compositions in engine exhaust with a range of millisecond response time. A sensitive method using tunable UV diode laser absorption spectroscopy was also discussed to detect NOx in exhausts.

Influence of laser intensity in second-harmonic detection with tunable diode laser multi-pass absorption spectroscopy

Tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy （TDLAS） has been widely employed in atmospheric trace gases detection. The ratio of the second-harmonic signal to the intensity of laser beam incident to the multi-pass cell is proved to be proportional to the product of the path length and the gas concentration under any condition. A new calibration method based on this relation in TDLAS system for the measurement of trace gas concentration is proposed for the first time. The detection limit and the sensitivity of the system are below 110 and 31ppbv （parts-per-billion in volume）, respectively.

Laser absorption spectroscopy for high temperature H_2O time-history measurement at 2.55 μm during oxidation of hydrogen

Concentration time-histories of H20 were measured behind reflected shock waves during hydrogen combustion. Experiments were conducted at temperatures of 1117-1282 K, the equivalence ratios of 0.5 and 0.25, and a pressure at 2 atm using a mixture of H2/O2 highly diluted with argon. H2O was monitored using tunable mid-infrared diode laser absorption at 2.55 μm （3920.09 cm-1）. These time-histories provide kinetic targets to test and refine reaction mechanisms for hydrogen. Comparisons were made with the predictions of four detailed kinetic mechanisms published in the last four years. Such comparisons of H2O concentration profiles indicate that the AramcoMech 2.0 mechanism yields the best agreement with the experimental data, while CRECK, San Diego, and HP-Mech mechanisms show significantly poor predictions. Reaction pathway analysis for hydrogen oxidation indicates that the reaction H ＋ OH ＋ M = H20 ＋ M is the key reaction for controlling the H2O formation by hydrogen oxidation. It is inferred that the discrepancy of the conversion percentage from H to H20 among these four mechanisms induces the difference of performance on H2O time-history predictions. This work demonstrates the potential of time-history measurement for validation of large reaction mechanisms.

Dynamic thermal modeling and parameter identification for a monolithic laser diode module

We improved the thermal equivalent-circuit model of the laser diode module（LDM） to evaluate its thermal dynamic properties and calculate the junction temperature of the laser diode with a high accuracy.The thermal parameters and the transient junction temperature of the LDM are modeled and obtained according to the temperature of the thermistor integrated in the module.Our improved thermal model is verified indirectly by monitoring the emission wavelength of the laser diode against gas absorption lines,and several thermal parameters are obtained with the temperature uncertainty of 0.01 K in the thermal dynamic process.

Calibration-free wavelength modulation spectroscopy for gas concentration measurements under low-absorbance conditions

We derive the expressions of the first and second harmonic signals on the basis of absorption spectral and lock-in theories, and determine the gas concentration according to the ratio of second and first harmonic signals. It is found that the X and Y components of the harmonic signals are influenced by the phase shift between the detection and reference signal, and the phase shift can be any value in a range from 0 to 2π, which is different from the results obtained previously. Meanwhile, an additional item caused by the residual amplitude modulation will make a great contribution to the second harmonic signal, and may not be neglected under low absorbance conditions. Theoretical analysis indicates that subtracting back-ground signal from the second harmonic signal can remove the influence of this item, and can improve the measurement accuracy of gas concentration. On this basis, we select the transition of CO2 at 6527.64 cm-1 to analyse the approximation errors during the derivation by numerical simulation and then measure the CO2 concentration under low absorbance conditions, with absorbance varying from 1‰ to 6‰.

Advances in multipass cell for absorption spectroscopy-based trace gas sensing technology[Invited]

In the field of absorption spectroscopy,the multipass cell[MPC]is one of the key elements.It has the advantages of simple structure,easy adjustment,and high spectral coverage,which is an effective way to improve the detection sensitivity of gas sensing systems such as tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy.This invited paper summarizes the design theory and the research results of some mainstream types of MPCs based on two mirrors and more than two mirrors in recent years,and briefly introduces the application of some processed products.The design theory of modified ABCD matrix and vector reflection principle are explained in detail.Finally,trends in its development are predicted.

Application of α-β-γ filtering to real-time atmosphere methane concentration measurement

A real time α-β-γ filtering technique is applied to the monitoring of atmosphere CH4 based on a tunable diode laser spectrum system operating at 1.654μm. This technique is developed for improving the sensitivity and precision of CH4 concentration measurement with slow concentration change. The effectiveness of this technique is evaluated by performing CH4 concentration measurement and using it to monitor the varying methane level in the atmosphere. It was proved that signal noise ratio enhancement factor is 4.25. The comparison between this filter and moving average is also included in this article. It indicates the advantage of the α-β-γ real time filter.

In situ measurement on nonuniform velocity distributionin external detonation exhaust flow by analysis ofspectrum features using TDLAS

Instantaneous and precise velocity sensing is a critical part of research on detonation mechanism and flow evolution.This paper presents a novel multi-projection tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy solution,to provide a real-time and reliable measurement of velocity distribution in detonation exhaust flow with obvious nonuniformity.Relations are established between overlapped spectrums along probing beams and Gauss velocity distribution phantom according to the frequency shifts and tiny variations in components of light-of-sight absorbance profiles at low frequencies analyzed by the fast Fourier transform.With simulated optical measurement using H2O feature at 7185.6 cm-1 carried out on a phantom generated using a simulation of two-phase detonation by a two-fluid model,this method demonstrates a satisfying performance on recovery of velocity distribution profiles in supersonic flow even with a noise equivalent absorbance up to 2×10^(-3).This method is applied to the analysis of rapidly decreasing velocity during a complete working cycle in the external flow field of an air-gasoline detonation tube operating at 25 Hz,and results show the velocity in the core flow field would be much larger than the arithmetic average from traditional tunable diode laser doppler velocimetry.This proposed velocity distribution sensor would reconstruct nonuniform velocity distribution of high-speed flow in low cost and simple operations,which broadens the possibility for applications in research on the formation and propagation of external flow filed of detonation tube.

Analysis of relative wavelength response characterization and its effects on scanned-WMS gas sensing

Our recently proposed three-step method showed the promising potential to improve the accuracy of relative wavelength response(RWR) characterization in the wavelength-modulation spectroscopy(WMS) over the commonly used summation method.A detailed comparison of the three-step method and the summation method,for the wavelength-scanned WMS gas-sensing,was performed with different laser parameters(modulation indexes and scan indexes) and gas properties(pressures and concentrations).Simulation results show that the accuracy of the predicted gas parameters is strongly limited by the RWR characterization with large modulation index and high gas pressure conditions.Both fitting residuals of RWR and errors of predicted gas parameters from the recently proposed three-step method are nearly 2 orders of magnitude smaller than those from the summation method.In addition,the three-step method is further improved by introducing a coupling term for the 2^(nd) harmonic amplitude.Experiments with CO_(2) absorption transition at 6976.2026 cm^(-1) were conducted and validated the simulation analysis.The modified-three-step method presents an improved accuracy in RWR description with at least 5% smaller fitting residual for all conditions compared with the three-step method,although the deviation of the deduced CO_(2) concentrations between these two methods does not exceed 0.2%.

Measurement of nonuniform temperature distribution by combining line-of-sight TDLAS with regularization methods

Regularization methods were combined with line-of-sight tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy(TDLAS)to measure nonuniform temperature distribution.Relying on measurements of 12 absorption transitions of water vapor from 1300 nm to 1350 nm,the temperature probability distribution of nonuniform temperature distribution,for which a parabolic temperature profile is selected as an example in this paper,was retrieved by making the use of regularization methods.To examine the effectiveness of regularization methods,truncated singular value decomposition(TSVD),Tikhonov regularization and a revised Tikhonov regularization method were implemented to retrieve the temperature probability distribution.The results derived by using the three regularization methods were compared with that by using constrained linear least-square fitting.The results show that regularization methods not only generate closer temperature probability distributions to the original,but also are less sensitive to measurement noise.Particularly,the revised Tikhonov regularization method generate solutions in better agreement with the original ones than those obtained by using TSVD and Tikhonov regularization methods.The results obtained in this work can enrich the temperature distribution information,which is expected to play a more important role in combustion diagnosis.

Natural logarithm wavelength modulation spectroscopy

Natural logarithm wavelength modulation spectroscopy(ln-WMS) is demonstrated in this Letter. Unlike the conventional wavelength modulation spectroscopy(WMS)-2 f technique, it is a linear method even for large absorbance, which is the core advantage of ln-WMS. The treating method used in ln-WMS is to take the natural logarithm of the transmitted intensity. In order to determine the proper demodulation phase, the η-seeking algorithm is introduced, which minimizes the absolute value of the first harmonic within the non-absorbing region. Subsequently, the second harmonic of the absorption signal is extracted by setting the demodulating phase as 2η. To illustrate the validity of ln-WMS, it was applied to water vapor experimentally. The result shows that even if the absorbance(base-e) is between 1.60 and 6.26, the linearity between ln-WMS-2 f and volume fraction is still established. For comparison, measurement with conventional WMS-2 f was also done, whose response no longer kept linearity. The η values retrieved in continuous measurements and the residuals were shown so as to evaluate the performance of the η-seeking algorithm. Time consumed by this algorithm was roughly 0.28 s per measurement. As an alternative WMS strategy, ln-WMS has a wide range of potential applications, especially where the absorbance is large or varies over a wide area.

1.65μm square-FP coupled cavity semiconductor laser for methane gas detection

We report a 1.65μm square-Fabry–Pérot[FP]coupled cavity semiconductor laser for methane gas detection.The laser output optical power can reach 7.4 m W with the side mode suppression ratio about 40 d B.The wavelength tuning range is 2 nm by adjusting the FP cavity injection current,covering the methane absorption line at 1653.72 nm.The lasing wavelength can also be tuned by adjusting the square microcavity injection current or temperature,respectively.Methane gas detection is successfully demonstrated utilizing this laser.

A Coal Mine Multi-Point Fiber Ethylene Gas Concentration Sensor

Spontaneous combustion of the coal mine goaf is one of the main disasters in the coal mine. The detection technology based on symbolic gas is the main means to realize the spontaneous combustion prediction of the coal mine goaf, and ethylene gas is an important symbol gas of spontaneous combustion in the coal accelerated oxidation stage. In order to overcome the problem of current coal ethylene detection, the paper presents a mine optical fiber multi-point ethylene concentration sensor based on the tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy. Based on the experiments and analysis of the near-infrared spectrum of ethylene, the system employed the 1.62 μm （DFB） wavelength fiber coupled distributed feedback laser as the light source. By using the wavelength scanning technique and developing a stable fiber coupled Herriot type long path gas absorption cell, a ppm-level high sensitivity detecting system for the concentration of ethylene gas was realized, which could meet the needs of coal mine fire prevention goaf prediction.