X-Ray Computed Tomography Instrument Performance Evaluation, Part III: Sensitivity to Detector Geometry and Rotation Stage Errors at Different Magnifications

With steadily increasing use in dimensional metrology applications, especially for delicate parts and those with complex internal features, X-ray computed tomography (XCT) has transitioned from a medical imaging tool to an inspection tool in industrial metrology. This has resulted in the demand for standardized test procedures and performance evaluation standards to enable reliable comparison of different instruments and support claims of metrological traceability. To meet these emerging needs, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) recently released the B89.4.23 standard for performance evaluation of XCT systems. There are also ongoing efforts within the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to develop performance evaluation documentary standards that would allow users to compare measurement performance across instruments and verify manufacturer’s performance specifications. Designing these documentary standards involves identifying test procedures that are sensitive to known error sources. This paper, which is the third in a series, focuses on geometric errors associated with the detector and rotation stage of XCT instruments. Part I recommended positions of spheres in the measurement volume such that the sphere center-to-center distance error and sphere form errors are sensitive to the detector geometry errors. Part II reported similar studies on the errors associated with the rotation stage. The studies in Parts I and II only considered one position of the rotation stage and detector; i.e., the studies were conducted for a fixed measurement volume. Here, we extend these studies to include varying positions of the detector and rotation stage to study the effect of magnification. We report on the optimal placement of the stage and detector that can bring about the highest sensitivity to each error.

High Spatial and Temporal Resolution Bistatic Wind Lidar

The high-resolution bistatic lidar developed at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) aims to overcome the limitations of conventional monostatic lidar technology, which is widely used for wind velocity measurements in wind energy and meteorology applications. Due to the large measurement volume of a combined optical transmitter and receiver tilting in multiple directions, monostatic lidar generally has poor spatial and temporal resolution. It also exhibits large measurement uncertainty when operated in inhomogeneous flow; for instance, over complex terrain. In contrast, PTB’s bistatic lidar uses three dedicated receivers arranged around a central transmitter, resulting in an exceptionally small measurement volume. The coherent detection and modulation schemes used allow the detection of backscattered, Doppler shifted light down to the scale of single aerosols, realising the simultaneous measurement of all three wind velocity components. This paper outlines the design details and theory of operation of PTB’s bistatic lidar and provides an overview of selected comparative measurements. The results of these measurements show that the measurement uncertainty of PTB’s bistatic lidar is well within the measurement uncertainty of traditional cup anemometers while being fully independent of its site and traceable to the SI units. This allows its use as a transfer standard for the calibration of other remote sensing devices. Overall, PTB’s bistatic lidar shows great potential to improve the capability and accuracy of wind velocity measurements, such as for the investigation of highly dynamic flow processes upstream and in the wake of wind turbines.

Calibration correction of arbitrary optical distortions by non-parametric 3D disparity field for planar and volumetric PIV/LPT

In this study, a new image calibration approach is presented that corrects arbitrary optical distortions by utilizing non-parametric, 3D disparity fields. A calibration plate with a high spatial resolution (i.e., high density of calibration marks) was used to identify optical distortions that remain after the initial calibration, which were then used to create a correction field for the pinhole or polynomial mapping functions. Results from a pipe flow experiment with four cameras using volume self-calibration (VSC) and Shake-the-Box Lagrangian particle tracking (STB LPT) are presented and the impact of the improved calibration is discussed. Using the calibration marks with the correction field, distortions of initially more than 20 pixels are reduced below 1 pixel. Using VSC with the correction field allows further reduction of average calibration disparities below 0.02 pixels (maximum 0.5 pixels), whereas without a correction field the remaining average disparity is much higher at 1 pixel (maximum 5 pixels). STB analysis of the data shows a considerable higher spatial resolution at the pipe wall and a consistent spatial distribution of the number of detected particles in the measurement volume.

A novel volumetric velocity measurement method for small seeding tracers in large volumes

This paper presents the volumetric velocity measurement method of small seeding tracer with diameter 5µm ∼ 100µm for volumes of ≥ 500cm3. The size of seeding tracer is between helium-filled soap bubbles (HFSB) and di-ethyl-hexyl-sebacic acid ester(DEHS) droplets. The targeted measurement volume dimension is equivalent to the volume of HFSB, which will give a higher resolution of turbulence study. The relations between particle size, imaging and light intensity are formulated. The estimation of the imaging results is computed for the setup design. Finally, the methodology is demonstrated for turbulence velocity measurements in the jet flow, in which the velocities of averaged diameter 15µm air filled soap bubbles are measured in a volume of 7200cm3.

High-resolution Bistatic Wind Lidar

The high-resolution bistatic lidar developed at the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) aims to overcome the limitations of conventional monostatic lidar technology which is widely used for wind velocity measurements in wind energy and meteorology applications. Due to the large measurement volume of a combined optical transmitter and receiver tilting in multiple directions, monostatic lidar generally has poor spatial and temporal resolution. It also exhibits large measurement uncertainty when operated in inhomogeneous flow, for instance, over complex terrain. In contrast, PTB’s bistatic lidar uses three dedicated receivers arranged around a central transmitter, resulting in an exceptionally small measurement volume. The coherent detection and modulation schemes used allow the detection of backscattered, Doppler shifted light down to the scale of single aerosols, realising the simultaneous measurement of all three wind velocity components. This paper outlines design details and the theory of operation of PTB’s bistatic lidar and provides an overview of selected comparative measurements. The results of these measurements have shown that the measurement uncertainty of PTB’s bistatic lidar is well within the measurement uncertainty of traditional cup anemometers, while being fully independent of its site and traceable to the SI units. This allows its use as a transfer standard for the calibration of other remote sensing devices. Overall, PTB’s bistatic lidar shows great potential to universally improve the capability and accuracy of wind velocity measurements, such as for the investigation of highly dynamic flow processes upstream and in the wake of wind turbines.

Hovering flight in hummingbird hawkmoths: kinematics, wake dynamics, and aerodynamic power

Hovering insects are divided into two categories: “normal” hoverers that moves the wing symmetrically in a horizontal stroke plane, and those with an inclined stroke plane. Normal hoverers have been suggested to support their weight during both down- and upstroke, shedding vortex rings each half stroke. Insects with an inclined stroke plane should, according to theory, produce flight forces only during downstroke, and only generate one set of vortices. The type of hovering is thus linked to the power required to hover. Previous efforts to characterize the wake of hovering insects have used low-resolution experimental techniques or simulated the flow using CFD, and so it remains to be determined if insect wakes can be represented by any of the suggested models. Here, we used tomographic PIV, with a horizontal measurement volume placed below the animals, to show that the wake shed by hovering hawkmoths are best be described as a series of bilateral, stacked vortex “rings”. While the upstroke is aerodynamically active, despite an inclined stroke plane, it produces weaker vortices than the downstroke. In addition, compared to the near wake, the far wake lacks structure and is less concentrated. Both near and far wakes are clearly affected by vortex interactions, suggesting caution is required when interpreting wake topologies. We also estimated induced power (Pind) from downwash velocities in the wake. Standard models predicted a Pind more than double that from our wake measurements. Our results thus question some model assumptions and we propose a reevaluation of the model parameters.

Contactless and high-frequency optical hygrometry in LACIS-T

<p>A narrow-band optical hygrometer FIRH (Fast Infrared Hygrometer, Nowak et al., 2016), based on absorption of laser light at wavelength λ=1364.6896 nm was used for contactless measurements of humidity inside the measurement volume of LACIS-T (turbulent Leipzig Aerosol Cloud Interaction Simulator, Niedermeier et al., 2020). LACIS-T is a multi-purpose moist-air wind tunnel for investigating atmospherically relevant interactions between turbulence and cloud microphysical processes under well-defined and reproducible laboratory conditions. Main goals of the experiment were:</p><p>1) characterization and evaluation of the FIRH hygrometer in controlled conditions,</p><p>2) characterization of fast turbulent humidity fluctuations inside LACIS-T.</p><p> </p><p>Collected results indicate, that FIRH can be used to characterize turbulent fluctuations of humidity in scales of tens of centimeters with the temporal resolution of 2 kHz and presumably more. Interestingly, scanning of LACIS-T measurement volume indicated existence of turbulence and wave-like features for the investigated measurement setup in its  central part, where air streams of different thermodynamical properties, yet the same mean velocity mix intensively. , However, the setup for cloud measurements include an additional flow (i.e., an aerosol flow) in the central part strongly reducing the wave-like features. In other words, cloud process studies are most likely unaffected by these features.</p><p>Finally, the experiments proved that contactless measurements of humidity conducted from outside the measurement volume of LACIS-T are useful, on condition of corrections of glass window transmission and interferences.</p><p> </p><p>Niedermeier, D., Voigtländer, J., Schmalfuß, S., Busch, D., Schumacher, J., Shaw, R. A., and Stratmann, F. (2020): Characterization and first results from LACIS-T: a moist-air wind tunnel to study aerosol–cloud–turbulence interactions, Atmos. Meas. Tech., 13, 2015-2033, doi:10.5194/amt-13-2015-2020.</p><p>Nowak J., Magryta P., Stacewicz T., Kumala W., Malinowski S.P., 2016: Fast optoelectronic sensor of water concentration, Optica Applicata, vol. 46(4) , pp. 607-618 , doi: 10.5277/oa160408</p>

On atom-swarming and Luce’s theorem for probabilistic beliefs

For qualitative probability spaces, monotone continuity and third-order atom-swarming are together sufficient for a unique countably additive probability measure representation that may have atoms (Mackenzie in Theor Econ 14:709–778, 2019). We provide a new proof by appealing to a theorem of Luce (Ann Math Stat 38:780–786, 1967), highlighting the usefulness of extensive measurement theory (Krantz et al. in Foundations of Measurement Volume I: Additive and Polynomial Representations. Academic Press, New York, 1971) for economists.