Accurate ultrasound speed measurement using an MLS-modulated continuous wave

The continuous wave shows greater potential than the pulse signal to achieve high-accuracy ultrasound speed measurement thanks to its stronger noise resistance. However, the accuracy of ultrasound speed measurement would deteriorate if echoes exist in the received continuous wave. This paper presents an applicable method using the maximum length sequence-modulated continuous wave. The present method improves the accuracy of ultrasound speed measurement further by resisting echoes. The time delay between the received signal and the transmitted signal is estimated accurately by combining the cross-correlation, parabolic interpolation and phase shift technique. Moreover, both the inherent delays induced by physical system and the path length of ultrasound are expediently corrected through least square estimation. As a result, accurate time of flight and ultrasound speed measurement are achievable. For example, the standard deviation of ultrasound speed measurement in distilled water is less than 0.003 m/s, and the deviation between the ultrasound speed measurement and the reference is less than 0.04 m/s.     

A highly accurate ultrasonic ranging method based on onset extraction and phase shift detection

The opposite-type ultrasonic ranging application is widely used in spatial 3D coordinates measurement systems. The traditional phase shift (PS) estimation based on multi-frequency ultrasonic pulse is a highly accurate ranging method but has high requirement to the transducers and signal processing algorithm. This paper proposes a novel opposite-type ultrasonic ranging method with single frequency pulse. It can estimate the time of flight (TOF) roughly through extracting the signal’s onset based on self-correlation and correct the TOF accurately through detecting the phase shift between the transmission and reception signals. In order to reduce the noise disturbance to this algorithm, a new de-noising method based on wavelet decomposition is presented, and the de-noising effect is analyzed by MATLAB simulation. Finally, three separate ultrasonic ranging experiments were designed to validate the effects of wavelet de-noising, PS detection and temperature field compensation. The accuracy of distance measurement can achieve 0.5 mm for the distance up to 5000 mm.     

Simultaneous distributed measurement of the strain and temperature for a four-point bending test using polarization-maintaining fiber Bragg grating interrogated by optical frequency domain reflectometry

We demonstrate a simultaneous distributed strain and temperature measurement technique with the spatial resolution of 1 mm using fiber Bragg gratings inscribed in a polarization-maintaining and absorption-reducing fiber (PANDA-FBGs) and optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR). We conduct four-point bending tests in an environmental chamber. Using high birefringent PANDA-FBGs that are manufactured specifically for the simultaneous measurements, the uniform temperature distributions and the typical strain distribution profiles of the four-point bending tests were successfully obtained. The measurement errors of strain were from −31 με to 19 με, and of temperature were from −0.9 °C to 1.3 °C. The spatial standard deviation was 7.5 με and 0.9 °C. We also discussed the effect of the residual strain of the sensor-bonding procedures and the data averaging.     

Analysis of tunnel displacement accuracy with total station

The remote distance measurement (RDM) method requires only common total stations and not special post-processing software. Moreover, this method is easy to operate and highly accurate results can be obtained. Therefore, RDM is used in the displacement monitoring of tunnel engineering. This study presents the calculation formulas for the crown settlement and wall convergence of tunnel as measured by RDM with total station. The mean error formulas are derived based on error propagation laws. When tunnel displacements measured by using total station with the m_s not more than 2 mm + 2D ppm (D is the measurement distance) and m_α not more than 1″, the horizontal distance between the rear viewpoint and the monitoring section is in the range of 50–150 m, the horizontal distance between the total station and the monitoring section ranges from 40 m to 60 m, and the total station is near the tunnel centerline, the measurement accuracy can reach 1 mm.     

Pilot tone aided measurements to extend the bandwidth of radio frequency applications

A technique to extend the effective measurement bandwidth of a non-coherent vector receiver is presented. This bandwidth extension technique relies on the use of a pilot signal (known a priori), which is added on the signal of interest and is measured in a single receiver. Compared to other bandwidth extension techniques referred as stitching techniques, the proposed approach avoids error propagation in the measurement bandwidth and simultaneously enables the measurement of signals that do not contain energy in certain spectral bands.The pilot signal is created in digital stages, which tackles to large extent the requirement of the a priori knowledge of this signal. Further, the pilot signal is designed to minimize estimation errors of the proposed technique, providing enhanced performance. It is analytically shown that the error incurred by the proposed method is always lower than the error from the measurement noise.Measurement results show the method functionality with an error in the range of −50 dB of the signal measured. Finally, the usefulness of the proposed technique is illustrated by measuring the input and output of an amplifier with dynamic range in excess of 80 dB over 290 MHz using an 18 MHz bandwidth receiver. This measurement could not have been performed by existing stitching techniques.     

Non-contact temperature measurement of silicon wafers based on the combined use of transmittance and radiance

We propose a non-contact temperature measurement method that combines the temperature dependence of transmittance below 600 °C and radiation thermometry above 600 °C. The combined method uses a polarization technique and the Brewster angle between air and a dielectric film such as SiO₂ or Si₃N₄ grown on silicon wafers. A prominent feature of this method is that both measurements of transmittance and radiance are performed with the same geometrical arrangement.For a semitransparent wafer, the measurement of p-polarized transmittance at the wavelengths of 1.1, 1.2 and 1.3 μm enables temperature measurement in the range from room temperature to 600 °C. For an opaque wafer above 600 °C, the p-polarized radiation thermometry at the wavelength of 4.5 μm allows the temperature measurement without the emissivity problem. The combined method with the use of transmittance and radiance is valid in the entire temperature range irrespective of variations of film thickness and resistivity.     

Application of ultrasonic Doppler velocimetry to molten glass by using broadband phase difference method

An ultrasonic velocity profile (UVP) measurement in high temperature molten glass was presented using buffer rod technique. A ceramic buffer rod was used to transmit ultrasound into molten glass. The rod had a taper shape and porous cladding to suppress trailing echo, which is the spurious echo in the buffer rod measurement. The broadband signal processing method was presented to improve noise tolerance in velocity estimation. This method is based on the phase difference method, which is originally proposed as a narrowband method. Measurable distance of the UVP measurement was investigated combining the buffer rod and the broadband signal processing method. Experiment was conducted at the temperature from 1000 °C to 1200 °C. As a preliminary test, motion tracking in molten glass was successfully demonstrated.     

Measurement of the neutral plane of an internal fire whirl using the background-oriented Schlieren technique for a vertical shaft model of a high-rise building

Since the height of the neutral plane is related to the direction of the high-temperature smoke and airflow diffusion of fires in high-rise buildings, the identification of the neutral plane is important for both the evacuation of residents and the safety of fire fighters. As yet, there are no effective methods for directly measuring the constantly changing neutral plane position. There are complex internal fire whirl phenomena in the inner space in particular cases. In this study, the background-oriented Schlieren (BOS) technique was used to visualize the neutral plane when a fire whirl occurs in a vertical shaft with a single corner gap. With n-propanol used as the fuel, the scale modeling experiments of fuel trays 5.8 cm and 7 cm in diameter were tested in a 34 cm (W) × 35 cm (L) × 145 cm (H) model for open and covered roof types. It is observed in the experimental process that the height of the neutral plane changes dynamically as the fire whirl is formed. The thermocouples were used to measure the temperature variation at different heights of openings to validate the measurement accuracy of the BOS technique. It is found that once a fire whirl occurs in the inner space of a high-rise building, the height of the neutral plane increases instantly. The experimental results demonstrate that the BOS technique can measure the neutral plane position of a large-scale model of a high-rise building fire scene directly, immediately and accurately.     

Optical fiber distributed temperature sensor using short term Fourier transform based simplified signal processing of Raman signals

A simplified technique using short term Fourier transform to reduce the errors in distributed temperature measurement with a Raman scattering based optical fiber sensor system is presented. The two main sources of errors are differential attenuation to anti-Stokes and Stokes signal by fiber and local change in Stokes due to change in temperature. The proposed technique compensates these errors and extracts correct temperature profile in spite of practical difficulties encountered in applying the theoretical concept. Moreover proposed technique is less complex, self-reliant, can tolerate variation in laser power, requires less dead zone and suits automation using embedded solution. Results of measurement carried out, using the system developed at RRCAT, Indore, for two hot zones having spatial width of 1.9 m (kept at 56 °C) and 1.5 m (kept at 78 °C), located at 47 m and 85 m respectively, show that these parameters can be recovered with significantly small errors.     

1 Ω and 10 kΩ high precision transportable setup to calibrate multifunction electrical instruments

A temperature controlled 1 Ω and 10 kΩ transportable setup was developed at National Institute of Metrological Research (INRIM) for the calibration and adjustment of multifunction electrical instruments as digital multimeters (DMMs) and multifunction calibrators (MFCs). The two standards are made of two 10 Ω and 100 kΩ resistor nets connected in parallel and inserted in a temperature controlled aluminum structure. Novelties of the realization are the oil insertion of the 1 Ω net with the internal side of the connectors lowering the thermo-electromotive forces (EMFs) effects, and the possibility to know instantly the temperatures of the environment, of the internal of the structure and the last calibration values of the 1 Ω and10 kΩ standards. Short- and mid-term stabilities of the setup standards resulted on the order and in some cases better than other metrology-grade 1 Ω and 10 kΩ commercial items. The transport of the setup even turning off its temperature control did not cause appreciable measurement variations on the two standards. The standards uncertainties meet those requested by DMMs and MFCs manufacturers to calibrate and adjust these instruments. A test to adjust a MFC gave satisfactory results.     

Design and experimental validation of an ultra-precision Abbe-compliant linear encoder-based position measurement system

The design and development of an Abbe-compliant linear encoder-based measurement system for position measurement with a targeted 20 nm uncertainty (k = 2) in machine tools and CMMs is presented. It consists of a linear scale and a capacitive sensor, mounted in line on an interface which is guided in the scale's measurement direction and driven by a linear motor based on the output signal of the capacitive sensor. The capacitive sensor measures the displacement of a target surface on the workpiece table. The functional point, which is the center of a tool or touch probe, is always aligned with the scale and capacitive sensor such that this configuration is compliant with the Abbe principle. Thermal stability is achieved by the application of a thermal center between the scale and capacitive sensor at the tip of the latter, which prevents both components to drift apart. Based on this concept, a prototype of a one-DOF measurement system was developed for a measurement range of 120 mm, together with an experimental setup aimed at verifying the reproducibility of the system for changing ambient conditions of ±0.5 °C and ±5%rh and the repeatability during tracking of a target surface over a short period of time. These experiments have shown that the measurement uncertainty of the one-DOF system is below 29 nm with a 95% confidence level.     

Study on the evaluation of cylinder’s global sizes

In ISO 14405-1, the global sizes, such as least-squares diameter, minimum circumscribed diameter and maximum inscribed diameter are defined. The diameters above can be measured by using cylindrical coordinate measuring method like the circular section measuring method of cylindricity error. The determination method of the least-squares diameter was firstly given based on the cylindrical measuring system, and the optimization models of the minimum circumscribed diameter and the maximum inscribed diameter were built, respectively. The corresponding objective functions were unified as “minimax” expressions. For the four axis parameters of the cylinder with the minimum circumscribed diameter or the maximum inscribed diameter, the searching ranges of cylinder’s axis parameters for their optimal solutions were defined numerically. Thereafter, the genetic, steepest decent and BFGS-0.618 algorithms were introduced, and the optimization evaluation algorithms of two kinds of diameters mentioned above were given. Based on many cylinders’ profiles obtained by the circular section measuring method on a measuring instrument of cylinder’s global sizes which was developed by Zhongyuan University of Technology, Zhengzhou, China. The accuracy, efficiency and suitability of three optimization algorithms were investigated through the evaluation of a lot of the minimum circumscribed diameters and the maximum inscribed diameters. The measurement uncertainty of the global sizes for the cylindrical specimen was analyzed, and the measurement uncertainties of the sizes in the radial and z directions are ±0.95 μm and ±0.5 μm, respectively. The total measurement uncertainties of the global sizes of the cylindrical specimens with the specifications of ϕ10 × 120 mm and ϕ100 × 300 mm are ±3.8 μm and ±5.7 μm, respectively. The investigation results showed that for the evaluation of the globe sizes, any one of three algorithms above is not absolutely prior to the other two algorithms while considering both evaluation accuracy and efficiency, and the difference of their evaluation results do not exceed 0.5 μm. On the other hand, many points between the maximum value and the least value do not affect the evaluation results in optimization process. For improving the evaluation efficiency, by de-selecting those points while considering the characteristic parameter was also studied based on the statistic method and experiment. Coefficient t should be less than 0.3 to ensure the evaluation accuracy. This research may be useful for developing the next generation measurement instrument for the global sizes and the way forward for the digital manufacturing.     

A motorized 5 m tape comparator for traceable measurements of tapes and rules

A motorized 5 m tape comparator was constructed in TUBITAK UME for calibration of tapes and rules up to 5 m length in one set-up and further lengths in multiple set-ups. The system is a practical development and provides a cost effective solution for calibration of tapes in which the highest grade’s accuracy requirement in OIML R35-1 e.g. is 600 μm for 5 m length and 1100 μm for 10 m length. It is mainly composed of 6 m rail system, mechanical parts, optical units and an integrated 6 m incremental linear encoder as a reference measurement axis for traceable measurements. The rails are kinematically located on a heavy marble construction and a motorized carriage, which employs a camera for probing of the scales on the tapes, is moved along the rails during the measurement. The image of the scale taken by the camera is viewed on the monitor screen together with the running software. The operator can perform the probing process by simply moving the carriage over the measured scales (tapes or rules) using a joystick. The carriage movement is measured by the incremental linear encoder previously calibrated by a laser interferometer and the software automatically takes the measurement results from the incremental linear encoder, applies correction values previously defined and determines the length of the tapes and rules as well as deviations from nominal lengths. The estimated expanded uncertainty of the steel tape measurement is U = 54 μm in one set-up (for 5 m length) and U = 77 μm in two set-ups (for 10 m length) at the confidence level of approximately 95%. Uncertainty budget for calibration of the device itself and for calibration of the test tapes are explained in detail. The results of extensive experimental work and analysis are provided by demonstrating application of science and technology of measurement and instrumentation. Investigations for long term stability of the system are given with the reported test results for the years of 2003-2011 and participated intercomparison results to validate the device scientifically are illustrated.     

Three-point-support method based on position determination of supports and wafers to eliminate gravity-induced deflection of wafers

The flatness measurement of large and thin wafers is affected greatly by gravity. Inverting method is often used to cancel the effect. However, it is required that the positions of the supports and wafers are perfectly symmetric about the inversion axis. In this study a three-point-support method based on position determination of supports and wafers was proposed. The supporting balls and the wafer were placed in arbitrary positions and their positions were obtained by measurement and fed into the FEM model which was developed to calculate the gravity-induced deflection (GID). The methods to acquire the positions of the supports and the wafer were proposed. The position measurement accuracy of the supports was improved greatly by circle fitting to the profile of the supporting ball. Wafer edge point was obtained accurately as the intersection point between the wafer surface line and the edge profile. The method to measure the wafer thickness using only one displacement sensor on the same equipment was presented. The simulation results were verified by experimental results. The centering device for the wafer and the positioning accuracy requirements of the supports are not needed any more. The effect of the positions of the supports and the wafer was reduced to be less than 1 μm for a 300 mm diameter and 397 μm thickness wafer with GID over 140 μm. This method could also be used for accurate flatness measurement of other large and thin panels.     

Mapping oxygen-induced temperature patterns of round bale silage based on 3D stepwise-profiling measurement

Abnormal rise of temperature in silage is regarded as a signal of aerobic deterioration caused by the permeation of atmospheric oxygen into the silage, which indicates the growth of lactate-assimilating yeasts and energy release. Although baled silage has distinct advantages over other forms of silage, the high surface-area to volume ratio of the bale leads to a high risk of aerobic deterioration due to plastic cover damage. With an objective to spatially assess any aerobic deterioration within round-bales silage, we modified a bale-penetrometer that is capable of profiling temperature distribution. For each tested bale having a cylindrical volume of 2.154 m³, 72 path profiles including 504 stepwise measurements were made. Furthermore, two paths were re-profiled to check if the proposed invasive method has a significantly contaminative effect on the internal temperature field. The resulting R² = 0.9978 between the profiling data and the re-profiling data verified that the contamination due to the invasion of ambient air following the temperature probe penetration could be negligible. We presented two mapping methods, one for two-dimensional (2D) cross-sections and one for three-dimensional (3D) volumes. To demonstrate the applicability of the proposed method, six representative samples of round bales with varied damage to plastic covers were tested. All temperature patterns, generated in both 2D- and 3D-space, were informative and clearly interpretable. Therefore, we conclude that the tested measurement method can benefit advance of bale silage research and production.     

Diagonal in space of coordinate measuring machine verification using an optical-comb pulsed interferometer with a ball-lens target

This paper presents a new optical method of coordinate measuring machine (CMM) verification. The proposed system based on a single-mode fiber optical-comb pulsed interferometer with a ball lens of refractive index 2 employed as the target. The target can be used for absolute-length measurements in all directions. The laser source is an optical frequency comb, whose repetition rate is stabilized by a rubidium frequency standard. The measurement range is confirmed to be up to 10 m. The diagonals of a CMM are easier to verify by the proposed method than by the conventional artifact test method. The measurement uncertainty of the proposed method is also smaller than that of the conventional method because the proposed measurement system is less affected by air temperature; it achieves an uncertainty of approximately 7 μm for measuring lengths of 10 m. The experimental results show that the measurement accuracy depends on noise in the interference fringe, which arises from airflow fluctuations and mechanical vibrations.     

Uncertainty evaluation of the 20 kN m deadweight torque standard machine

A deadweight-type torque standard machine of 20 kN m rated capacity (20 kN m-DWTSM) has been designed and developed by the National Metrology Institute of Japan (NMIJ) at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST). Each uncertainty contribution comes mainly from the performance of each mechanical part of the 20 kN m-DWTSM. Authors evaluated the uncertainty of the mass of the linkage weights, local acceleration of gravity, influence of air buoyancy on deadweight loading, initial moment-arm length (including CMM measurement and temperature compensation), and sensitivity of the fulcrum. This report deals especially with evaluation of the remaining contributions, namely the influence of arm flexure and reference line variation at the end of the moment-arm on best measurement capability (BMC). Estimation of BMC in the 20 kN m-DWTSM gave a relative expanded uncertainty of less than 7.0 · 10⁻⁵ (k = 2) for the calibration range from 200 N m to 20 kN m.     

High-accuracy displacement metrology and control using a dual Fabry-Perot cavity with an optical frequency comb generator

A displacement metrology and control system using an optical frequency comb generator and a dual Fabry-Perot cavity is developed with sub-nm accuracy. The optical frequency comb generator has expanded the displacement measurement range and the dual cavity system has suppressed the environmental fluctuation. We evaluated the absolute uncertainty of the developed displacement measurement system to be approximately 190 pm for the displacement of 14 μm and the accurate displacement control using a phase-locked loop was demonstrated with a resolution of approximately 24 pm.     

Straightness evaluation using inclinometers with a pair of offset bars

To evaluate the straightness of large objects, the use of an inclinometer is advantageous because it requires neither straight shape references nor transferring mechanisms. Herein, we consider adopting it for precise (with greater accuracy than 1 mm) evaluation of the straightness of linear particle accelerators (linacs) that are several hundred meters long or longer. In this study, the straightness evaluation of a 206-m-long part of the KEK injector linac was demonstrated using inclinometers with a pair of cantilevers called offset bars. The offset bars were adopted to extend the evaluation length by avoiding obstacles that block the evaluation path. Errors caused by the offset bars can be eliminated by reversal measurement considering the slope angles of the offset bars. The derived straightness corresponded with those derived by an alignment telescope and a laser-based alignment system within several millimeters and partly within several hundred micrometers. The reproducibility of slope angles for an arbitrary measurement point was 15 μrad at standard deviation. This corresponds to a standard deviation of 0.47 mm for straightness, with a total evaluation length of 500 m and measurement intervals of 2 m. The results indicate that our newly devised method is applicable for evaluating the straightness.     

A signal interpolation method for Fabry–Perot interferometer utilized in mechanical vibration measurement

In this investigation, a self-developed signal processing method for Fabry–Perot interferometer is proposed which can be utilized for high-speed dynamic displacement measurements, e.g. mechanical vibration measurements. The lookup table (LUT) integrated with the interference intensity equation has been employed for the interpolation processing of interference signals. With the aid of this method, the interpolation error has been reduced by 40% in comparison with that resulting from the commercial sinusoidal signal processing module. By operations of Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), the displacement measurement distribution can be converted into the frequency spectrum diagram. The interpolation resolution of the proposed interferometric displacement measurement system is about 0.1 nm. Experimental results demonstrate that this interferometer system is available for measuring frequencies till 2 kHz where its corresponding amplitude is 0.15 μm.