Non-contact Measurement Method Research Articles

Direct and non-contact measurement of liquid fraction in unconstrained encapsulated PCM melting

Almost all of the experiments on PCM melting rely on temperature measurement. However, based on the experimental evidence, the presence of a thermometer in the solid PCM affects the results. Because the solid phase covers the probe and in fact, the solid phase temperature is measured instead of the liquid phase. On the other hand, since the PCM sticks to the probe, the regime of melting can change from unconstrained to constrained melting. In this study, a new method is proposed to measure directly the liquid mass fraction of PCM during melting. This method can be categorized as a non-contact measurement method and is based on the image processing technique.In this method, images of the melting process are prepared under controlled conditions at successive times. By performing image processing techniques, the solid core boundary is determined and the enclosed area is calculated and divided by the solid phase initial surface area. The method was applied to PCM melting inside a cylinder. Meanwhile, the problem was also simulated numerically by the multi-phase method (VOF). The multi-phase method allows considering the change in the total volume of PCM (summation of volumes of both solid and liquid phases) due to the difference between solid and liquid densities. Good agreement was observed between numerical and experimental results. The RMSE was 1.8 %. Moreover, it was observed that the shapes and sizes of the solid core in experimental images and numerical results at different times match well. But for lower solid volume fractions, the solid core sinks deeper in experimental images in comparison with numerical results.

Study on non-contact measurement method of resistance spot weld nugget diameter using laser ultrasonic technique

Resistance spot welding can instantaneously join two or more plates by the resistance heating of the metal and is in high demand owing to its high productivity and high-work efficiency. For the quality control of resistance spot welding, the size and quality of the welded part, called the nugget, are important. Therefore, this study aims to establish a highly efficient and high-speed resistance spot-weld inspection method that can be applied to whole-lot inspection, which is currently a difficult process. The objective of this study is to measure the nugget diameter using laser ultrasonic technique that enable remote, non-contact ultrasonic inspection. An investigation of the available ultrasonic waves using simulated test specimens demonstrated the feasibility of estimating the distance from the generation/detection point to the joint using the diffraction of the Lamb wave, which can propagate long distances in a thin plate. By measuring the actual resistance spot welding specimens, it was determined that differences in the nugget diameter of approximately 0.5 mm could be clearly distinguished from the arrival time of the diffraction waves. It was also inferred that the nugget diameter could be calculated by determining the propagation velocity of the diffraction wave with a similar accuracy to that of the measurement using a contact-type probe.

Approach to multispectral thermometry with Planck formula and hybrid metaheuristic optimization algorithm.

Accurate temperature measurement has significant implications for product quality, industrial process control, and scientific research. As a non-contact temperature measurement method with broad application prospects, multispectral thermometry still poses significant challenges in data processing. Currently, most multispectral thermometry methods use the Wien approximation equation to construct the objective function. However, the use of the Wien approximation equation is conditional and generally applicable only to low temperatures or short wavelengths. In this paper, what we believe is a new data processing model of multispectral thermometry is established based on the Planck formula; Additionally, a feasible region constraint method is proposed to constrain the emissivity range; By utilizing a hybrid metaheuristic optimization algorithm based on differential evolution (DE) and multi-population genetic (MPG) algorithms, the simulation results of six different models and experimental results of silicon carbide demonstrate that the proposed algorithm achieves an average relative error in temperature measurement within 0.42% and a random relative error within 0.79%. The average computation time for each temperature inversion is approximately 0.26 seconds. The accuracy and efficiency of the algorithm ensure that it can be applied to real-time temperature measurement in industrial field.

Metamaterial-based acoustic enhanced sensing for gearbox weak fault feature diagnosis

In gear fault diagnosis of practical engineering, the gear fault signal is affected by external strong noise interference, the multipath superposition and interface loss of the internal fault excitation transmission, which leads to weak feature of incipient fault signals, making the gear fault diagnosis difficult. Inspired by the acoustic manipulation capabilities of acoustic metamaterials, this study proposes a method for weak gear fault feature diagnosis via gradient acoustic metamaterial (GAM), which utilises the acoustic rainbow capture and compression ability to reduce the difficulty of gear incipient fault diagnosis. According to the gear frequency modulation/amplitude modulation modulation principle, enhancement of fault feature frequencies can be achieved by collecting gear acoustic signals from the selected air gaps in GAM structure. In this study, the feasibility of GAM-based gear weak fault feature diagnosis is proved by experiments, which verify the multiscale feature denoising and frequency selective enhancement characteristics of GAM. The results show that the amplitude of the target signal is amplified more than eight times, the sideband component containing the fault signal is enhanced obviously, and the effect of denoising outside the target sideband is evident, making the fault feature can be easily identified from the weak fault signal after demodulation. By comparing with digital filtering in traditional signal processing, this method is more straightforward in extracting weak gear fault features. Additionally, this method adopts non-contact measurement method with micro-electroMechanical system (MEMS) microphone, which has advantages over acceleration sensors in overcoming the space limitation. All in all, the proposed method is effective and facilitates the identification of weak gear faults.

Line spectroscopic reflectometry for rapid and large-area thickness measurement.

Thickness measurements in the range of 0.1-1 mm over large optically transparent layers are essential in various manufacturing applications. However, existing non-contact measurement methods, which typically measure a single point or a few points at a time, fall short in their suitability for inline area measurement. Here, we introduce line spectroscopic reflectometry (LSR), an approach that extends the point measurement of traditional SR to line measurement, enabling rapid thickness measurement over large areas. By combining line beam illumination and line spectroscopy, LSR can measure 2048 points simultaneously, thereby boosting the measurement speed by two thousand times. We detail the measurement principle and the optical design in the near-infrared regime, and demonstrate thickness measurements of single-layered and double-layered samples over a measurement line length of up to 68 mm. Furthermore, we showcase the inline area measurement capability of LSR through one-dimensional sample scanning, with measurement rates limited only by camera readout rates.

Research on Non-Contact Voltage Measurement Method Based on Near-End Electric Field Inversion

Aiming at the problems of complex equations, low accuracy, and the strict measurement point layout requirements of the existing electric field integration method, a non-contact measurement method based on the inversion voltage of the near electric field is proposed. Firstly, the field source relationship is clarified, the connection between the spatial electric field and the voltage is derived, and a near-end electric field inversion method is proposed. Secondly, a three-dimensional simulation model of an overhead line is established using COMSOL finite element software, the three-dimensional spatial potential distribution of the overhead line is obtained, and the voltage is inverted and calculated. Finally, an overhead line simulation test platform was built, and MEMS electric field sensors were used for testing and verification. The results show that the maximum error of the three-phase voltage inversion of the proximal electric field measurement is 6.8%, and the error between the voltage obtained by the experimental inversion measurement and the reference voltage is less than 7.2%. The simulation and experimental results also verify the accuracy and feasibility of the inversion voltage of the proximal electric field. The results of this paper can lay a foundation for the practical application of small and miniaturized electric field sensors, and help in the construction and development of smart grids.

Density and surface tension measurements of molten Al–Si based alloys

AbstractThis study is part of a series of studies aimed at measuring the thermophysical properties of molten phase change material-type metallic thermal energy storage materials near 873 K (600°C). The target material is Al–Si based alloys. First, as a feasibility study, density measurements of the molten state of three Al–Si binary alloys (Al–12.2Si, Al–50Si and Al–90Si in atomic%) were performed. A highly accurate non-contact density measurement method based on the static magnetic field superposition electromagnetic levitation (EML) method was employed as the density measurement method. The validity of this experimental method was confirmed, and density of molten Al–Si base alloys (ADC12 and Al–5.9mass%Si–1.6mass%Fe) were measured as a function of temperature with an expanded uncertainty of 1.2%. In addition, the surface tension of the alloys was measured by the droplet oscillation method using the EML technique. The surface tension was successfully obtained as a function of temperature with expanded uncertainty of 2.3%.

A model for multiphase flow velocity calculation in pipelines based on ultrasonic sensors

In the petroleum and natural gas industry, a wide variety of multiphase fluids are prevalent, and precise measurement of their flow velocity in pipelines holds significant importance for different stages of well drilling and construction. However, due to the presence of large solid particles and the corrosive nature of the liquid phase in multiphase fluids within the petroleum industry, invasive measurement methods struggle to maintain long-term acceptable detection accuracy. Therefore, the non-contact fluid flow velocity measurement method based on ultrasonic sensors exhibits substantial research value. Nonetheless, when employing this approach for pipeline multiphase fluid flow velocity measurement, the abundance of background interference noise at the site poses challenges in Doppler echo signal reconstruction and results in lower precision for frequency shift extraction, leading to considerable errors in flow velocity calculation results. To address this issue, the present study utilizes a transmit-receive separated continuous wave ultrasonic sensor. First, a mathematical model is developed for the superimposed signal of ultrasonic Doppler echoes within the pipeline. Next, a novel signal reconstruction method is proposed by employing Chebyshev polynomials for interpolation computation of the sampled discrete signals. Subsequently, a Doppler shift model is introduced, leading to the formulation of a new model for multiphase flow velocity calculation in pipelines based on ultrasonic sensors. Finally, a comparison experiment for full-pipe multiphase flow velocity detection is conducted to validate the computational performance of the new model. The experimental results show that, compared with the FFT model and the conventional cross correlation model, the comprehensive meter factor of the ultrasonic flow measurement system with the new model is reduced by 0.024 445, the accuracy is reduced by 2.98%, the nonlinear error is reduced by 2.4405%, the average relative error is reduced by 0.646%, the standard deviation is reduced by 0.045 175, and the root mean squared error is reduced by 0.029 615.

Response analysis and effect evaluation of dynamic stabilization for ballasted track

Dynamic stabilization is a process of the railway lines that are newly built must go through before it is put into operation. This study investigates the characteristics of stabilizing operation on ballasted track and proposes methods for detecting and evaluating the state of the ballast bed in an attempt to improve the operation quality. Firstly, the influence mechanism of stabilization on the migration of ballast particles and the settlement of track panel from the macro and micro perspectives through the method of visual non-contact measurement by video images were demonstrated. A three-dimensional simulation model which the first wheelset of the tamping and stabilizing vehicle - ballasted track was established using the discrete element method and multi-flexible body dynamics coupling algorithm, and the logistic mathematical model for sleeper displacement and support stiffness of ballast bed was constructed. Furthermore, an innovative non-contact method for measuring the support stiffness of ballast bed under complex scenes was proposed. Results show that the ballast particles on the slope of the ballast bed are rearranged and gradually compacted by a movement mode of “vertical as the main direction and horizontal as the auxiliary” during the stabilizing operation. As the number of stabilizing operations increases, the settlement of the track panel gradually decreases, with a maximum attenuation amplitude of 44.9%. Comprehensively, the track panel achieves reasonable load distribution after the second stabilizing operation, and achieves the best effect with the relative growth rate of the two-point stiffness being 49.5%. Significantly, this study provides key theoretical basis for the scientific stabilizing operation and evaluation of ballast bed status of railway lines that are newly built.

Measurement of human body parameters for human postural assessment via single camera.

We present a camera-based human body parameters measurement approach and develop a human postural assessment system. The approach combines the conventional contact measurement method and the non-contact measurement method to overcome some shortcomings in terms of time, expense, and professionalism in early methods. The entire measurement system consists of a computer, a high-definition camera, and the sticky points that are applied to the participant's body before the measurement. The camera captures the triple view image of human body. Then, the human body outline and the joint points of the human skeleton are extracted to locate the bone feature points. Finally, measurements and extractions of the human parameters are made. Experimental results demonstrate that the global postural assessment system provides quantitative guidance for human postural evaluation, and it completely changes how human postural is evaluated. The postural assessment system is significant for early diagnosis of diseases and medical rehabilitation treatment.

Characterization of Ultrasonically Assisted Orthogonal Cutting of Bone Using Digital Image Correlation Analysis

Abstract Bone cutting with high performance material removal is critical for enhancing orthopedic surgery. Ultrasonically assisted cutting (UAC) is an advanced process with the potential to improve the material removal. However, strain and other intermediate variables in bone cutting are difficult to obtain because of the lack of suitable measurement methods, especially for high-frequency vibration-assisted cutting. In this study, digital image correlation (DIC) analysis was applied for the first time to investigate the full-field strain map and the mechanism of crack development during conventional cutting (CC) and ultrasonically assisted cutting of cortical bone. A novel method for calculating cutting and thrust forces under the mixed fracture mode of bone was also proposed. Extensive experimental results showed that the average strain and strain rate of cortical bone decreased after the application of UAC, but the maximum transient strain rate in UAC was greater than that in CC, and the crack-affected area and shear band width in UAC were smaller than those in CC. In addition, the strain parameters obtained by the DIC analysis were used to calculate the cutting and thrust forces in the hybrid fracture mode. The calculated values of forces matched well (over 90%) with the measured results, indicating the strong feasibility of DIC applications in orthogonal bone cutting research. This study has significant theoretical and practical value since it reveals the fracture mechanism of cortical bone in UAC, demonstrates a non-contact full-field measurement method for tissue strain calculation, and provides inspiration for optimizing the design of innovative orthopedic instruments.

Design Method for Automatic Assembly Production Line of Electric Valves in Space Propulsion Systems

This article proposes a design method for a valve automatic assembly production line in response to the automation assembly requirements of electric valve products in space propulsion systems and the engineering problems of inaccurate loading force control and low valve measurement accuracy in existing process methods. This method can achieve five assembly processes during the assembly process of electric valves, including pre-tightening force control, valve-core stroke measurement, performance testing, and shell structure welding. The article introduces the design of platform components such as process execution, positioning, and transportation, as well as the design and operation process of workstations. By combining the design of a three-axis motion mechanism, a small turntable, and a robotic arm, the product can achieve professional, positioning, full process automation, and equipment miniaturization design across multiple workstations. Through the design of precise control of loading force and non-contact optical measurement method of moving structure, compared with the original method, the parameters affecting product performance are precisely controlled and the precision is improved. And the multivariable decoupling of valve product performance is realized by this method. Through application verification, this automatic assembly production line can significantly improve the assembly efficiency of electric valve products and solve difficult problems in product engineering.

Noncontact Evaluation of HTS Cylinder for Compact Cryogen-Free NMR

Herein, a compact cryogen-free nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) system is developed using a stacked high-temperature superconducting (HTS) bulk system. To compensate for magnetic field uniformity, an HTS cylinder is installed inside the measurement space. The cylinder is wound with REBCO tapes placed on the surface of a copper cylinder. The uniformity of its critical current density is important for NMR signal detection. Such an operation requires an examination of the quality of the critical-current-density distribution of the cylinder. A noncontact measurement method is required for such an examination. When a magnetic field is applied, the superconductor exhibits a demagnetization effect. Moreover, if any defect exists in any part of the superconducting tape, that particular part would contain no demagnetization, thus disturbing the relevant magnetic field distribution. In this study, this phenomenon is investigated using DC and AC magnetic fields. The magnets and sensor are placed inside the HTS cylinder, and magnetic fields are applied to the HTS cylinder surface. The results confirm that the proposed method is effective and applicable for evaluating the critical-current distribution.

In-Water Fish Body-Length Measurement System Based on Stereo Vision.

Fish body length is an essential monitoring parameter in aquaculture engineering. However, traditional manual measurement methods have been found to be inefficient and harmful to fish. To overcome these shortcomings, this paper proposes a non-contact measurement method that utilizes binocular stereo vision to accurately measure the body length of fish underwater. Binocular cameras capture RGB and depth images to acquire the RGB-D data of the fish, and then the RGB images are selectively segmented using the contrast-adaptive Grab Cut algorithm. To determine the state of the fish, a skeleton extraction algorithm is employed to handle fish with curved bodies. The errors caused by the refraction of water are then analyzed and corrected. Finally, the best measurement points from the RGB image are extracted and converted into 3D spatial coordinates to calculate the length of the fish, for which measurement software was developed. The experimental results indicate that the mean relative percentage error for fish-length measurement is 0.9%. This paper presents a method that meets the accuracy requirements for measurement in aquaculture while also being convenient for implementation and application.

DEVELOPMENT OF A METHOD FOR CONTACTLESS TEMPERATURE MEASUREMENT IN 3 SPECTRAL RANGES

A 3-spectral method for non-contact temperature measurement has been developed. Three silicon photodiodes were used. The separation of the spectrum is done by optical bandpass filters and beamspliters. It is possible to work in three modes: three-spectral, two-spectral (spectral ratio) and one-spectral. In the first mode, the temperature of objects with an unknown and variable emissivity can be measured. The last two modes give good results respectively for gray bodies and for objects with known emissivity.

Research on accurate non-contact temperature measurement method for telescope mirror.

Non-contact temperature measurement for a solar telescope mirror is critical for improving the mirror seeing and thermal deformation of solar telescopes, a long-standing challenge in astronomy. This challenge arises from the telescope mirror's inherent weak thermal radiation, often overwhelmed by reflected background radiations due to its high reflectivity. In this work, an infrared mirror thermometer (IMT) is equipped with a thermally-modulated reflector, and a measurement method based on an equation for extracting mirror radiation (EEMR) has been developed for probing the accurate radiation and temperature of the telescope mirror. Using this approach, we can extract the mirror radiation from the instrumental background radiation via the EEMR. This reflector has been designed to amplify the mirror radiation signal incident on the infrared sensor of IMT, while inhibiting the radiation noise from the ambient environment. In addition, we also propose a set of evaluation methods for IMT performance based on EEMR. The results reveal that the temperature measurement accuracy of IMT to the solar telescope mirror using this measurement method can be achieved better than ±0.15°C.

TransPhys: Transformer-based unsupervised contrastive learning for remote heart rate measurement

Remote Photoplethysmography (rPPG) is a non-contact heart rate measurement method based on facial video. Because the rPPG signal is highly susceptible to interference from external conditions such as light changes and head movements, the rPPG signal extracted in natural scenes has a low signal to noise ratio and cannot accurately calculate the heart rate value. Aiming at these problems, this paper constructs a self-supervised machine learning network based on Transformer, TransPhys, to achieve robust measurement of heart rate. Using the self-supervised method of contrastive learning, first perform data augmentation, input the enhanced frame into Stem, and extract coarse local spatial features. Through Spatial-Temporal Transformer, calculate the pulse signal of the face area, and finally output the PPG signal. Compared with other supervised machine learning methods, this method can be trained and achieve ideal results without using any labels, which means that this method can be well generalized to practical applications. The experimental results show that this method is better than the current mainstream self-supervised methods.

Errors of non-contact temperature measurement

In recent years, there is a trend of improving the performance and efficiency of all existing measuring instruments due to a leap in technology. Almost every industry uses a variety of technologies that apply temperature control. Temperature of a heated body can be estimated by measuring the parameters of its thermal radiation, which are electromagnetic waves of different lengths. Temperature measurement is necessary for comfortable automatic control and management of production processes. The use of non-contact means makes it possible to measure the temperature of, firstly, moving objects, secondly, objects in inaccessible places, thirdly, to avoid damage to the measuring instruments when controlling large temperatures. High speed, the possibility of measuring temperature without disconnecting the object from the technological process, ensuring personnel safety, temperature measurement up to 3000 °C – these are the advantages of non-contact temperature measurement method. To obtain reliable values when measuring thermophysical quantities it is necessary to know the processes occurring in interaction of the measuring device or sensor with the object of measurement. These processes affect the magnitude of the measurement error, that is, magnitude of the result deviation from the true value of the measured parameter. This paper describes the errors of non-contact temperature measurement of pyrometers, namely total radiation pyrometer, partial radiation pyrometer, spectral ratio pyrometer, as well as shows the results of comparative calculations between them. Expressions for the evaluation of methodical errors of total radiation, partial radiation and spectral ratio pyrometers are given, as well as the results of comparative calculations of errors are shown.

Remote sensing of human skin temperature by AI speckle pattern analysis

Analysis of dynamic differential speckle patterns, scattered from human tissues illuminated by a laser beam, has been found by many researchers to be applicable for noncontact sensing of various biomedical parameters. The COVID-19 global pandemic brought the need for massive rapid-remote detection of a fever in closed public spaces. The existing non-contact temperature measurement methods have a significant tradeoff between the measurement distance and accuracy. This paper aims to prove the feasibility of an accurate temperature measurement system based on speckle patterns analysis, enabling the sensing of human temperature from an extended distance greater than allowed by the existing methods. In this study, we used speckle patterns analysis combined with artificial intelligence (AI) methods for human temperature extraction, starting with fever/no fever binary classification and continuing with temperature measurement at higher resolution.

A Dual-Beam Differential Method Based on Feedback Interferometry for Noncontact Measurement of Linear and Angular Displacement

A dual-beam differential method for noncontact measurement of linear and angular displacement is reported in this paper. Compared to other optical sensors, the system based on the frequency-modulated feedback interferometry has higher sensitivity for non-cooperative targets and a wider range with respect to the angle measurement. Performance of the proposed method is evaluated via testing a prototype system. The experimental results show that the prototype has a stability of 35 nm and 0.15“ over 1 hour with a resolution of 1 nm and 0.02” respectively. The linearity is 5.58×10^-6 in the range of 100 mm and 1.34×10^-4 in the range of 360°. The experiments for PZT deformation measurement and rotary motor monitor indicate that the proposed method possesses considerable potential for high-precision metrological applications, such as lathe calibration and motor control.