Krikor B. Ozanyan

Toward in-cylinder absorption tomography in a production engine

Design requirements for an 8000 frame/s dual-wavelength ratiometric chemical species tomography system, intended for hydrocarbon vapor imaging in one cylinder of a standard automobile engine, are examined. The design process is guided by spectroscopic measurements on iso-octane and by comprehensive results from laboratory phantoms and research engines, including results on temporal resolution performance. Novel image reconstruction techniques, necessary for this application, are presented. Recent progress toward implementation, including details of the optical access arrangement employed and signal-to-noise issues, is described. We present first cross-cylinder IR absorption measurements from a reduced channel-count (nontomographic) system and discuss the prospects for imaging.

Chemical species tomography by near infra-red absorption

The spatial distribution of chemical species can be a critical determinant of the performance of chemical reactors. One such reactor is the combustion chamber of the Internal Combustion engine. This paper presents a design for the measurement of hydrocarbon concentration distribution within a running engine using near infra-red absorption tomography. The fundamentals of the technique, and design parameters for the equipment are discussed. By utilising micro-optic components, a minimally invasive system is feasible and by utilising advanced laser/photodetector combinations, good temporal performance is anticipated.

Agile Sensing Systems for Tomography

The concept of Agile Tomography is introduced and exemplified by reviewing the progress in tomography sensors and systems which can be deployed in situ. Agile tomography capabilities are examined across a number of electromagnetic and electrical modalities, ranging from gamma-rays to low-frequency electrical measurements. The recent achievements in already established areas are highlighted, as well as emerging technology and new modalities.

Field-Programmable Data Acquisition and Processing Channel for Optical Tomography Systems

This article introduces the design and implementation of an affordable high-performance set of identical data acquisition channels with digital processing capabilities. Each channel incorporates a versatile 16-bit sigma-delta analog-to-digital converter (ADC) with reconfigurable filter characteristics. The main component of each channel, a low-cost field-programmable gate array (FPGA), controls the ADC, serves as a random access memory to store the ADCs user-defined filters, and performs digital processing. A special case is illustrated, with the FPGA software configured to perform lock-in detection, which is widely applied in a number of tomography modalities. The detection scheme, based on a quadrature demodulator, utilizes only a fraction of the FPGA resources and introduces errors orders of magnitude less than the quantization error of the ADC. Implementations other than a lock-in amplifier can be realized without additional hardware intervention.

A computational study of tomographic measurement of carbon monoxide at minor concentrations

In order to develop a chemical species tomography system, this paper carries out various computational steps to address the problem of measuring minor species concentration using single-pass, short path-length absorption techniques in the mid-infrared. It focuses on the imaging of carbon monoxide (CO) in combustion exhaust as a case study, with an average concentration of 10 ppm over a 50 mm diameter cross-section, taking account of the presence of other absorbing species. CO absorption transitions R6, R7, R9 and R10 are identified as possible measurement targets. The joint effects of spectral absorption linewidth and laser source linewidth are considered at length, resulting in recommendations for laser linewidth to achieve appropriate levels of CO absorption signal purity. Measurement strategies are considered for achievement of the necessary sensitivity, noise and bandwidth performance. A feasible beam arrangement for tomographic imaging is discussed, providing 48 measurements of path concentration integral. Representative phantom reconstructions are presented, with encouraging results for application to such dynamic gaseous subjects.

Fiber-based UV laser-diode fluorescence sensor for commercial gasolines

We report on an optical fiber probe, coupled to a 404-nm laser diode, as a fluorescence sensor for monitoring of commercial gasolines. The principle of operation of the sensor is based on quantifying the intensity of the Stokes-shifted fluorescence from some of the heavier polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons C/sub x/H/sub y/,(x,y) /spl ges/ (14,10) present in gasolines as minor constituents. The normalized efficiency of the optical fiber probe, as a function of its geometry, is calculated in the cases of single-fiber and parallel dual-fiber designs. The spatial and temporal resolutions achievable by the sensor are discussed as a function of design parameters The performance of the sensor is investigated experimentally for commercial gasolines in the liquid and gas phase. The optimal excitation wavelength for such sensors is investigated in the range of 350-400 nm. The linear sensitivity to vapor concentrations of retail gasoline fuel is demonstrated in the range of 4%-125% of combustion stoichiometry at 10 bar and 180/spl deg/C. Statistical processing of the data from the sensor allows distinction to be made between different forecourt gasoline suppliers, as well as fuel varieties (unleaded, low sulfur, etc.).

Intelligent Carpet System, Based on Photonic Guided-Path Tomography, for Gait and Balance Monitoring in Home Environments

We report on the photonic variant of the previously introduced guided-path tomography (GPT), by demonstrating a system for footstep imaging using plastic optical fiber (POF) sensors. The 1 m × 2 m sensor head is manufactured by attaching 80 POF sensors on a standard commercial carpet underlay. The sensing principle relies on the sensitivity of POF to bending, quantified by measuring light transmission. The photonic GPT system, comprising the sensor head with processing hardware and software, covered by a mass-production general-purpose carpet top, successfully performs footstep imaging and correctly displays the position and footfall of a person walking on the carpet in real time. We also present the implementation of fast footprint center of mass calculations, suitable for recording gait and footfall. A split-screen movie, showing the frame-by-frame camera-captured action next to the reproduced footprints, can be downloaded at http://ieeexplore.ieee.org.

Tomographic Imaging of Surface Deformation From Scarce Measurements via Sinogram Recovery

Imaging from limited data is a common practice in many industrial tomography applications where sensor design often assumes an irregular approach with low number of measurements. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm that reduces the task of hard-field imaging from incomplete data to a sinogram recovery problem. The algorithm utilises a novel angular interpolation scheme, employing the sinusoidal Hough transform, to identify sinusoidal traces in the sinogram and estimate missing sinogram samples along such traces. Together with the detailed theory behind the algorithm, we present its performance with experimental data obtained from a photonic guided path tomography system. The targeted subject function is the induced deformation in the quasi-planar surface of a flexible ~1 m2 sensor, fixed to an underlying soft-foam mat. The set of 32 independent measurements generated by the system are presented in a severely sparse 91times180 sinogram image. The sinogram is then recovered to a degree suitable for standard tomographic algorithms for hard-field data inversion, such as filtered back-projection.

Hard-Field THz Tomography

We report on hard-field tomography measurements in the THz spectral range and subsequent image reconstruction of a phantom subject. At THz wavelengths, the traditional hard-field tomography approach to measure attenuation is hindered by a substantial diffusely scattered component. Consequently, we work in optical density image contrast, as opposed to material density typical in high-energy hard-field modalities, such as X-ray CT. The hard-field component of the signal is extracted with a spatial filter, efficiently suppressing the soft-field contributions from the imaged subject. Using time-domain THz spectroscopy, line integrals of the real part of the refractive index are taken, by measuring the delay of the THz pulse across the subject at 12 angles and 0.5 mm steps in the transversal direction for each angle. The delay values are calculated from the location of the first peak in the integrated time-domain waveforms. This is justified by the physics of THz generation with ultrashort pulses in a biased-gap antenna and is shown to be superior to existing alternatives. The resulting tomography projections provide evidence for the hard-field character of the line integrals. The quality of the reconstructed image is interpreted and discussed, together with some limitations and future avenues.

Progress towards non-intrusive optical measurement of gas turbine exhaust species distributions

We report on the development of three systems intended to provide fast, non-intrusive measurement of cross-sectional distributions of pollutant species within gas turbine exhaust flows, during ground-based testing. This research is motivated by the need for measurement systems to support the introduction of technologies for reducing the environmental impact of civil aviation. Tomographic techniques will allow estimation of the distributions of CO2, unburnt hydrocarbons (UHC), and soot, without obstruction of the exhaust, bypass or entrained flows, from measurements made in a plane immediately aft of the engine.