With the development of mechanical fault diagnosis technology, complex mechanical systems do not need to be shut down periodically for the maintenance. The working condition of the mechanical systems can be monitored by analyzing the wear metal particles in the systems' lubricating oil. However, the output signals of the monitoring sensor are non-stationary. In some case the particle signals are overlapped with each other. The goal of this thesis is to find a method to decompose those overlapped particle signals, and then count the particle number in the lubricating oil. At the beginning EMD method was introduced in the experiment because of the character of the sensor signals. In this project, because EMD method is sensitive to the noise in the original signals, an improved version of EMD, EEMD method was implemented. Finally, a post processing method was used to get a better result.

With the development of mechanical fault diagnosis technology, complex mechanical systems do not need to be shut down periodically for the maintenance. The working condition of the mechanical systems can be monitored by analyzing the wear metal particles in the systems' lubricating oil. However, the output signals of the monitoring sensor are non-stationary. In some case the particle signals are overlapped with each other. The goal of this thesis is to find a method to decompose those overlapped particle signals, and then count the particle number in the lubricating oil. At the beginning EMD method was introduced in the experiment because of the character of the sensor signals. In this project, because EMD method is sensitive to the noise in the original signals, an improved version of EMD, EEMD method was implemented. Finally, a post processing method was used to get a better result.

With the development of mechanical fault diagnosis technology, complex mechanical systems do not need to be shut down periodically for the maintenance. The working condition of the mechanical systems can be monitored by analyzing the wear metal particles in the systems' lubricating oil. However, the output signals of the monitoring sensor are non-stationary. In some case the particle signals are overlapped with each other. The goal of this thesis is to find a method to decompose those overlapped particle signals, and then count the particle number in the lubricating oil. At the beginning EMD method was introduced in the experiment because of the character of the sensor signals. In this project, because EMD method is sensitive to the noise in the original signals, an improved version of EMD, EEMD method was implemented. Finally, a post processing method was used to get a better result.

With the development of mechanical fault diagnosis technology, complex mechanical systems do not need to be shut down periodically for the maintenance. The working condition of the mechanical systems can be monitored by analyzing the wear metal particles in the systems' lubricating oil. However, the output signals of the monitoring sensor are non-stationary. In some case the particle signals are overlapped with each other. The goal of this thesis is to find a method to decompose those overlapped particle signals, and then count the particle number in the lubricating oil. At the beginning EMD method was introduced in the experiment because of the character of the sensor signals. In this project, because EMD method is sensitive to the noise in the original signals, an improved version of EMD, EEMD method was implemented. Finally, a post processing method was used to get a better result.

No description available.

Digital holography (DH) has a variety of applications on measuring the 3D position of different kinds of particles, including the droplets created in drop breakups, seeding particles for flow velocity measurements, characterizations of the behavior of the microorganisms, etc. A particle detection method is required to extract the 3D information encoded in the interference patterns of the holograms, which is desired to be accurate and fast. As the accuracy of the particle detection method improves, the time efficiency of the method decreases. In this study, an optimization process is developed based on an existing method to shorten the processing time. The optimization process includes reducing the complexity of the method and introducing the parallel processing algorithm that can be implemented on cluster machines. The existing particle detection method is separated into several steps and analyzed. The most time consuming step, refining the threshold to separate overlapping particles, is the focus of complexity reduction optimization. A Python code is developed, based on object oriented programming, to implement the optimization. Message Passing Interface (MPI) is applied for parallel processing with a 24-core remote workstation. The optimized Python code is compared with the existing Matlab code in both time consumption and accuracy aspects with synthetic holograms. It is found that the optimization process is able to reduce the time consumption by about four times with an acceptable sacrifice in accuracy. Finally, a DIH system with the optimized method, is applied to characterize different kinds of solid particles. One is noted that the previous studies focus on measuring artificial particles or droplets which are both spherical particles, while most natural solid particles usually have irregular shapes. Equivalent diameter, circularity and aspect ratio are introduced to quantify the dimension and morphology of the irregular shapes. The statistics of the parameters are generated to characterize different kinds of the particles. The accuracy of the characterization of the particles are verified with the observation of the microscopic images of the particles, which can further prove the improvement of the optimized method for particle detection.

This work presents the first electrochemical observation of single polystyrene microbead collisions with an electrode within a microchannel. We have observed that detecting single microbead collisions is facile with this system. Additionally, we have shown that by increasing flow within the channel, one can increase both the frequency and magnitude of collision signals. This technique may provide a means of signal amplification in future sensing work. / text

No description available.

Imaging mass spectrometry (IMS) in microscope mode allows the spatially resolved molecular constitution of a large sample section to be analysed in a single experiment. If performed in a linear mass spectrometer, the applicability of microscope IMS is limited by a number of factors: the low mass resolving power of the employed ion optics; the time resolution afforded by the scintillator screen based particle detector and the multi-hit capability, per pixel, of the employed imaging sensor. To overcome these limitations, this thesis concerns the construction of an advanced ion optic employing a pulsed extraction method to gain a higher ToF resolution, the development of a bright scintillator screen with short emission lifetime, and the application of the Pixel Imaging Mass Spectrometry (PImMS) sensor with multi-mass imaging and time stamping capabilities. Initial experimental results employing a three electrode ion optic to spatially map ions emitted from a sample surface are presented. By applying a static electric potential a time-of-flight resolution of t/2Δt=54 and a spatial resolution of 20 μm are determined across a field-of-view of 4 mm diameter. While the moderate time-of-flight resolution only allows particles separated by a few Dalton to be distinguished, the instrument is used to demonstrate the multi-mass imaging capabilities of the PImMS sensor when being applied to image grid structures or tissue samples. An improved time-of-flight resolution is achieved by post extraction differential acceleration of a selected range of ions (up to 100 Da) using a newly developed five electrode ion optic. This modification is shown to correct the initial velocity spread of the ions coming off the sample surface, which yields an enhanced time-of-flight resolution of t/2Δt=2000 . The spatial resolution of the instrument is found to be 20 μm across a field-of-view of 4 mm. Adjusting the extraction field strength applied to the ion optic of the constructed mass spectrometer allows the optimised mass range to be tuned to any mass of interest. Ion images are recorded for various samples with comparable spatial and ToF resolution. Hence, studies on tissue sections and multi sample arrays become accessible with the improved design and operational principle of the microscope mode IMS instrument. A fast and efficient conversion of impinging ions into detectable flashes of light, which can consequently be recorded by a fast imaging sensor, is essential to maintain the achievable time-of-flight and spatial resolution of the IMS instrument constructed. In order to find a suitable fast and bright scintillator to be applied in a microchannel based particle detector, various inorganic and organic substances are characterised in terms of their emission properties following electron excitation. Poly-para-phenylene laser dye screens are found to show an outstanding performance among all substances analysed. An emission life time of below 4 ns and a brightness exceeding that of a P47 screen (industry standard) by a factor 2× is determined. No signal degradation is observed over an extended period, and the spatial resolution is found to be comparable to commercial imaging detectors. Hence, these scintillator screens are fully compatible with any ion imaging application requiring a high time resolution. In a further series of mass spectrometric experiments, ions are accelerated onto a scintillator mounted in front of a multi pixel photon counter. The charged particle impact stimulated the emission of a few photons, which are collected by the fast photon counter. Poly-para-phenylene laser dyes again show an outstanding efficiency for the conversion of ions into photons, resulting in a signal enhancement of up to 5× in comparison to previous experiments, which employed an inorganic LYSO scintillator.

Neste trabalho é apresentado o protótipo de um detector a gás sensível à posição em duas dimensões para aplicação com experimentos de espalhamento e difração de raios X. Partiu-se de um detector inicialmente desenvolvido para outras aplicações e mostrou-se as modificações necessárias no conceito original do dispositivo. As estratégias adotadas para determinar as adaptações essenciais foram: pesquisar na literatura sobre as características de um detector multifilar para raios X (escolha do gás, da pressão, da janela, etc.), uso de simulações, implementação das mudanças e realização de testes. Ferramentas computacionais foram usadas para estimar a resistência mecânica e a atenuação de fótons de raios X que ajudaram na determinação do material para a construção da janela de entrada. Simulações do detector foram construídas com o programa Garfield e serviram para o estudo do funcionamento do detector, além de determinar os parâmetros ótimos de operação do equipamento, como a distância entre os fios e diâmetro dos mesmos, além da diferença de potencial a ser aplicada, entre muitos outros parâmetros. Os resultados obtidos mostraram que o conceito do detector multifilar com as devidas adaptações permitem o funcionamento desse dispositivo para detecção de raios X. No entanto, dependendo da aplicação, pode ser necessário aprimorar a resolução do equipamento, a fim de ter uma melhor descrição dos dados coletados. São apontadas algumas ideias para esse aprimoramento. Apresentam-se também resultados interessantes obtidos com um detector de padrão microscópico chamado de triplo GEM. Esse dispositivo pertence ao laboratório de desenvolvimento de detectores a gás (GDD Group) do CERN e foi utilizado em um trabalho nessa instituição. Os resultados mostraram o potencial do equipamento para detecção de raios X. Os resultados e simulações apresentadas nesse trabalho confirmaram que as mudanças no conceito original do detector permitem seu uso na detecção de raios X. Além disso, foi possível obter várias indicações para uma maior otimização, que pode melhorar sua resolução e estabilidade. O conhecimento adquirido sobre o programa Garfield é fundamental nesse processo, uma vez que é possível propor mudanças e testá-las no computador. Essas melhorias podem ser empregadas em uma nova versão desse detector que será construído nos laboratórios do Instituto de Física da Universidade de São Paulo (IFUSP). Pode-se indicar ainda a possibilidade do uso de detectores GEM aplicados aos experimentos de espalhamento e difração de raios X. É necessário ressaltar que o grupo de Suaide et al. do departamento de Física Nuclear do IFUSP já trabalha com a tecnologia GEM, porém focada em outras aplicações. / This work presents the prototype of a 2D position sensitive gas detector for application in X-ray scattering and diffraction experiments. Starting from a detector initially developed for other applications and will show the required changes on the original concept of this device. The strategy used to determine the necessary adaptations were based on searching in the literature for the overall characteristics of a multi-wire X-ray detector (choice of gas, pressure, window, etc.), the use of simulations, implementation of the changes and finally operational tests. Computational tools were used to calculate the mechanical strength and attenuation of the X-ray photons that helped to determine the most appropriate material for the construction of the entrance window. Detector simulations were built with Garfield software and were used to study the overall properties of the detector, and to determine the optimum parameters for the equipment operation. Typical parameters are the distance between the wires, wire diameter, high voltage to be used, among several other parameters. The results obtained showed that the multi-wire detector concept with the implemented adaptations allowed the detection of X-rays. However, depending on the application, it may be necessary improve the resolution of the equipment, in order to have a better description of the collected data. Several ideas are suggested for this improvement. It is also presented interesting results obtained with a microscopic pattern detector called triple GEM. This device belongs to the Gas Detectors Development group (GDD group) at CERN and was used in my training at this institution. The results showed the potential of the equipment for detection of X-rays. The results and simulations presented in this work, confirmed that the changes in the concept of the original detector permitted it use on X-ray detection applications. Also, it was possible to obtain several indications for further optimization, which may improve its resolution and stability. The acquired knowledge on the software Garfield is essential on this process since it is possible to propose changes and test it in the computer. Such improvements may be use in a new version of this detector which will be built at the laboratories of the Institute of Physics (University of São Paulo - IFUSP). We also indicate the possibility of use of GEM detectors for X-ray scattering and diffraction experiments. It is necessary to emphasize that the group of Professor Alexandre Suaide and collaborators at Nuclear Physics department (IFUSP) already work with the GEM technology, but focused on other applications.