The present invention relates to a device for measuring the velocity of an object or particle, particularly to non-intrusive optical measurement of the velocity of fluid flows, single particles, or solid objects.
Basically, two techniques for non-intrusive optical measurement of velocity of fluid flows or solid objects are known in the art.
According to a first principle, two parallel laser beams are focused in a measurement volume and two photo-detectors collect the scattered light each time a particle passes through the focus of the laser beams. The speed of the particle is determined by cross-correlating the signals from the two detectors, i.e. by tracking the time it takes a particle to go from one focused spot to the next This technique is normally referred to as the Time-of-Flight Anemometry or TOF principle—sometimes called a “two-spot” system. In this technique, the light from a laser is split into two laser beams that must be parallel and both must have their waists (focal points) located in the measurement volume with a well-defined mutual distance. This demands a delicate alignment of the system and usually requires a stable laser. The measurement volume is quite narrow so the system must be positioned with great accuracy in order to perform the desired measurements.
Another principle is often referred to as the Laser Doppler Anemometer (LDA in case of flow measurement) or Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV in case of solid-body measurement) principle. According to this technique, two laser beams from the same laser intersect at their beam-waists. A set of parallel fringes of maximum energy will be created in the measuring volume. A particle scatter Doppler shifted light from each beam as it passes through the measurement area and a photo-detector mixes these two optical signals to give an electrical signal with a modulation frequency proportional to the particle velocity. The velocity is determined by Fourier transformation and/or counting zero-crossings of the high-pass filtered signal. The LDA principle requires that the beam waists must be located at the intersection point, which demands an accurate alignment. In case the two beams do not intersect at the beamwaists, the frequency of the detected signal will depend on the crossing point of the particle, which is unacceptable, The laser must be frequency stable in order to control the fringe spacing, just as a high power laser is often required for velocity measurement according to this LDA principle—two issues that both increase the cost of the laser system.
From European patent No. 0 291 708 a device for measuring the speed of moving light-scattering objects according to the LDA principle is known. This device composes stacked arrays of conventional edge-emitting laser diodes arranged with a defined separation from one another producing a periodic intensity distribution in the measuring volume. As the laser light is scattered from the objects in the measurement region into the detector, a periodic signal is observed. In order to be able to determine the direction, the laser diode array is arranged such that no emission occurs in at least one location of a laser diode.
Conventional laser diode arrays comes in two basic kinds: In one kind the individual laser diodes are still phase-coupled, while in the other kind they are individually addressable and have independent phases. The phase-coupled laser diode array has several drawbacks that seriously hinder its application to velocity measurement, such as described in the article “Flow-velocity measurements with a laser diode array”, Azzazy, et al., APPLIED OPTICS, Vol. 36, No. 12, 20 April 1997, pp 2721-2729.
The drawbacks of the phase-coupled laser diodes and this technology are that the lasers have a relative large beam-to-beam intensity variation, a low modulation depth for the fringe patter, and an undesired a double-peak intensity modulation in the far-field due to interference between light from different sources in the diode array.
By addressing the individual laser diodes these drawbacks will disappear. However, conventional laser diodes are expensive, fragile at handling and they have relatively high power consumptions. Additionally, conventional laser diodes emit light at large divergence angles (approx 30 degrees) calling for a high numerical aperture for the lenses used for collecting the emitted light. This will further increase the cost of the system, or introduce detrimental diffraction effects in the measuring volume if an insufficient numerical aperture of the lens is used with the purpose of cutting the cost. It 2D configuration, the individual laser sources cannot be addressed.
These drawbacks have meant that this technique has not matured into a commercially available velocity measuring equipment.
On this basis, the object of the invention is to provide a device and a method of the initially mentioned kind that overcomes the above-mentioned drawbacks with non-intrusive velocity measurement techniques.
This object is achieved according to the invention by a device and a method for measuring the velocity of objects, particles, or a fluid flow, comprising transmitter means comprising at least one linear array or a two-dimensional array of surface emitting lasers, said laser sources being arranged in a configuration spaced apart by a predetermined separation distance (d), an optical system including at least one imaging lens directing the electromagnetic radiation emitted from the laser sources into a measurement region in a predetermined manner producing an array of fringes or spots spaced apart with a predetermined distance (Λ) corresponding to the separation distance (d) between the laser sources, receiver means comprising light manipulating means directing the electromagnetic radiation scattered from the measurement region to detection means including at least one detector detecting the scattered electromagnetic radiation from the measurement region as an object passes through the measurement region, detector processing means processing the detected signals from the detector means corresponding to the object passing the fringes in the measurement region. The surface emitting light sources could be Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laserdiodes (VCSELs). By the invention, it is realised that an equivalent solution could be high efficiency, infra red light emitting diodes instead of the laser sources if it is appropriate in an actual application. By a system according to the invention, it is realised that coherent as well as in-coherent light scattered from the light sources may be used depending on the nature of the non-intrusive velocity measurement, unlike the known systems where it is imperative that the emitted light is coherent.
By the invention, a device and a method are provided using non-expensive light sources. The system according to the invention is a robust system that is easy to align. The system only requires a medium or low power of each of the emitting light sources. By using VCSEL arrays, relatively inexpensive light sources are provided that produce numerous benefits compared to the prior art techniques. The VCSEL arrays may be produced from one wafer instead of using stacked laser diodes. This makes alignment and calibration of the system easy. Moreover, there is only a minor temperature influence on the calibration of the system according to the invention as a temperature change may primarily change the emitted wavelengths, which do not enter into the calibration factor. The VCSELs are small structures (each of approximately size 0.3 mm×0.3 mm), which makes it possible to produce a compact system at relatively low costs. The light sources are produced in wafers, where the individual VCSELs are placed in a rectangular array with a mutual distance of approx. 0.25 mm. The desired linear or 2-D configuration of VCSELs can thus be cut out of one wafer. Furthermore, the individual VCSELs can be fictionally controlled while being placed in the wafer, so as to assure that a functioning array is obtained before any expensive processing has taken place. This is advantageous as a robust system can be produced, which is simple in assembly as the individual sources are born with the predetermined mutual distance. Due to the characteristics of the VCSELs, no interference between light scattered from the individual beams occurs, making signal analysis easy. The system does not depend on the spatial coherence of the electromagnetic radiation.
According to the invention, the array of light sources is imaged via the optical system that is designed as a clean-imaging system sometimes called a “4-f system”, i.e. with two imaging lenses arranged such that the emitted light passes through both lenses so that the fringe distance is independent of the distance to the exit lens. The projected fringe spacing in the measuring volume is determined by the separation distance between the VCSELs (approx. 0.25 mm) and the magnification of the optical system. Since the VCSELs are individually controllable, an individual modulation of the fringes is possible, it being a space- and/or time-dependent modulation. An arbitrary number of fringes may be produced in the measurement volume according to the requirements of the actual application. The velocity measurement is almost independent of temperature, just as it is possible to determine the direction of the particle passing through the measurement region in a simple manner.
The synthetic laser Doppler system according to the invention may be regarded as an extended TOF system. Electronic processing of the detected signals may be carried out in a relative simple manner, which only demands a limited amount of computer power, Hereby, a real time measurement may be provided in an inexpensive and reliable way.
In a basic set-up, the linear array of light sources emit electromagnetic radiation in the near-infrared or visible spectrum through an imaging lens of focal length ƒ focusing the light beams in the measurement volume producing a linear array of spots. The spot distance Λ is determined by:
Preferably, the optical system includes a cylinder lens. By introducing a cylindrical lens, the intensity pattern produced in the image plane of the measurement volume will ben in the form of parallel planes, usually named fringes. By use of the cylinder lens, fringes with an aspect ratio, i.e. a “fringe width over fringe thickness” of arbitrary value may be produced. This feature may produce a relatively large measurement volume created in a simple manner with low power consumption.
In another embodiment of the invention, the imaging optical system includes two lenses, here named “clean imaging”. The two lenses are arranged such that the fringes are produced by the emitted light from the laser array passing through both lenses and—if deemed appropriate—also through a cylinder lens situated in the optical system, e.g. between the two lenses. Hereby, the fringe spacing or spot separation Λ becomes independent of the distance from the exit lens. In a first version of this embodiment, the cylinder lens is positioned with the lens centre line generally parallel to the linear direction of the laser source array. The fringe spacing ζ is in this case determined by
Λ=d·ƒ2/ƒ1, where
Advantageously, the distance between the array of light sources and the first lens is ƒ1, the distance between the exit, second lens and the image plane of the measurement volume is ƒ2, and the distance between the two lenses is ƒ1+ƒ2 with the cylinder lens located with the respective focal distances from each of the lenses. By the invention, it is realised that the cylinder lens may be arranged in different planes according to preferred preferences in a particular application.
In a variant of the embodiment, the cylinder lens is positioned with the lens centre line inclined relative to the linear direction of the laser source array or arrays. By rotating the cylinder lens, a closer fringe distance is produced in the imaging plane whilst maintaining the equidistant fringes. In a further variant of this embodiment, a plurality of linear arrays, i.e. a 2-D array, of surface emitting laser sources is parallelly arranged. Hereby, the fringes may be equidistantly positioned and a measurement volume with particular small fringe spacing may be obtained increasing the accuracy of the velocity measurement.
In another embodiment, two linear surface emitting laser source arrays are arranged in two directions, preferably mutually orthogonal. Hereby, a system for simultaneous velocity-measurement in two directions is obtained. In this embodiment, the optical system may be similar to the single direction measurement system described above. The emitted electromagnetic radiation may have different wavelengths, different modulation frequencies or different coding in each of the arrays. Hereby, the detection system may- easily be adapted to detecting velocities in both directions. The optical system in these two direction measurement embodiments may be provided by a cylinder lens for each array in order to produce overlapping fringe patterns in the measurement volume. However, it is realised that a common cylinder lens that is inclined relative to both arrays may be provided, just as other optical manipulating means may be provided in order to obtain the desired fringe patterns.
In another preferred embodiment, two detectors are successively arranged in the direction of measurement, preferably in the Fourier plane of the collecting lens. Hereby, the signals in the two detectors, as a light-scattering particle passes through the fringe pattern in the measurement volume, will observe the same modulation frequency but with a possible phase shift. This phase shift depends on the ratio between the particle size compared with the fringe spacing, as well as on the ratio between the detector spacing and the focal length of the lens of the receiving means. This means that not only the velocity but also the direction of movement and the particle size are determined.
The position of the detectors, i.e. the receiving means may be chosen according to the circumstances. The measured frequency of the temporal signal will be independent on the actual position of the detector system.
In another preferred embodiment, the optical system includes a beam splitter diverting the electromagnetic radiation reflected from the object to the receiver means. This allows for a particularly compact design of a system according to the invention.
In a particular embodiment, a grating or diffactive optical element with lines parallel with the axis of the laser array is provided in front of the beam splitter and an array of detectors corresponding to the laser array is arranged. Bach laser beam is split into two new beams, which are incident on the target at different angles relative to the direction of movement of the target surface (out-of-plane rotation). Due to the effect of Doppler shift and by using optical mixing at the detectors, it is possible to measure out of plane relative angular displacement about the y-axis as a function of the y-position along the shaft, i.e. in the direction of the linear array of light sources, e.g. the torsional twist of a structure. The relative angular displacement is related to the phase change given by:
ΔΦ(y)=4πƒθ(y)/Λg,
where
In another preferred embodiment, a grating or diffractive optical element with lines perpendicular to the axis of the laser array is provided and where a corresponding array of detectors is arranged. The grating splits each laser beam in to two new laser beams, which hit the target slightly shifted in position in the x direction. By doing optical mixing of the backscattered light at the detectors the elongation of the target in the z direction can be measured in points along the x-axis. Hereby, tilt, bending or vibration of the target surface can be determined. The mechanical measure can be related to the phase difference given by:
where
As an alternative to the back-scattering mode, the receiving means may be located in a position such that the emitted electromagnetic radiation is diffracted by an object passing the measurement region being received by the electromagnetic radiation, i.e. the receiving means are positioned closely behind the measurement volume relative to the transmitted light, which as well is placed in close proximity to the scattering without any lenses in between. In particular, for flow measurements, this may be advantageous, as an example, in a fluid flow channel with scattering particles. The particles will shadow the incident light and one large detector will collect the transmitted light diffracted by the particle. Optionally, an optical transmission grating is arranged in front of the detector, whereby the modulated signal received by the detector may be enhanced.
By this embodiment, a particularly compact configuration is provided. The distance from the VCSEL array to the centre of the flow channel may be approx. 1 mm. A practical application of this compact and simple system could be to measure the flow in a capillary tube.
Each VCSEL source in the array may be controlled independently. In particular, the electromagnetic radiation from the VCSEL source array may be provided with a time- and space-dependent encryption, such as pulses, phase or frequency shifts of intensity modulation or the like, for distinguishing the individual laser sources and/or each array of laser sources from one another. Hereby, a “running light” may be provided This makes it possible to determine the direction of the displacement by simple electronic processing and to code the signal from various projected arrays in the measuring volume.
The signal processing means may be adapted with means for determining the displacement and/or the velocity of a single particle. As a supplement or as an alternative, the signal processing means may be adopted with means for determining the displacement and/or the velocity of a solid surface or a flow of many particles in the measuring volume at the same time.
In the following, the invention is described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, where:
a and 9b show details of an embodiment of the invention producing a higher light source density,
In
In
In
Λ=d·b/g.
In the embodiment shown in
In order to make the fringe spacing independent of the distance from the exit lens, a second imaging lens 105 is arranged in the optical system, such as shown in
Λ=d·ƒ2/ƒ1,
where ƒ1 and ƒ2 are the focal lengths of the first and second lenses 103 and 105.
As shown in
In
The optical system is common to both measurement systems as the imaging lenses 103 and 105 focus the emitted light from both arrays 101, 101H. However, two additional cylinder lenses 104, 104H may be provided in order to form linear fringes 40, 40N in both directions. Other fringe-producing light manipulation means may of cause be provided instead—or in addition—to the cylinder lenses 104, 104H, e.g. an inclined common cylinder lens having a cylinder axis different from both linear arrays.
In
In
In another preferred embodiment of the invention, it is realised that a higher light source density and a smaller fringe spacing may be obtained by placing a number p of linear arrays 101a, 101b, 101c beside each other with N VCSELs in each array producing a p x N VCSEL array, as shown in
A particular embodiment for measuring torsional twist is shown in
The backscattered light is collected by lens 105, combined by the grating 107, redirected by beam splitter 106 and imaged by lens 202 onto the detector plane 211. Optical interferometric mixing of a pair of sub-beams 10a, 10b at a given detector 210 gives due to Doppler shift the rotational speed of the target 3 in the corresponding point of illumination. An array of detectors 210 corresponding to the VCSEL array 101 is provided in this embodiment, although only one detector 210 is shown in the figure. Each detector 210 (and the corresponding VCSEL) provides one measurement of rotational speed at a different position along the y-axis. Hereby, it is possible to measure out of plane relative angular displacement about the y-axis as a function of the y-position i.e. along the shaft, e.g. the torsional twist of a structure. The relative displacement is given by:
ΔΦ(y)=4πƒθ(y)/Λg,
where
In
where
The electronic processing of the detector signals may be adapted to the nature of the signal velocity measurement to be performed. In FIGS. 12 to 14, different ways of carrying out the electronic processing are shown.
In
In
The electronic processing shown in a zero crossing mode is shown in
By the invention it is realised that variations of the embodiments of the invention and equivalents thereof may be provided without departing from the scope of the invention as set forth in the accompanying claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
01204155.4 | Nov 2001 | EP | regional |
Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
---|---|---|---|
PCT/DK02/00672 | 10/8/2002 | WO |