Design of an Optical Fiber-Coupled Sensor for Ambient Methane Measurement

A tunable diode laser system was developed for remote monitoring of ambient methane using fiber optically connected all-optical sensor heads. Experiments were performed to quantitatively evaluate the influence of selected system hardware and software configurations, with the further goal of enabling measurements of ambient methane concentrations over an intrinsically-safe fiber optic network at sufficient precision and sensitivity to detect unknown fugitive emission sources. The designed system could switch between the sweep integration (SI) and wavelength modulation spectroscopy (WMS) detection methods, which inferred the methane volume mixing ratio from an absorption or second-harmonic (2f) feature respectively. Signals controlling the laser injection current were optimized to balance trade-offs between measurement precision and system sensitivity, and fiber optic components were thermally stabilized to reduce system drift. Starting from this base system, experiments were performed to evaluate the effectiveness of theory-based and experimental calibration methods, software and dual laser approaches to estimating the absorption-free intensity, different signal processing approaches to suppress effects of residual amplitude modulation (RAM) of the laser output intensity, and methods to reduce system drift. Tests also considered effects of varying fiber lengths between the central laser control hardware and the remotely located optical sensor heads. Finally, long-term stability was evaluated by quantifying bias (drift) and precision uncertainty in tests up to 16 months after initial calibration. The best measurement performance was achieved using the WMS method with thermally stabilized optical components within the central control hardware combined with a theory-based calibration, automated daily calibration supported by concurrent software-based estimation of the absorption-free intensity, and pair-wise averaging of the 2f feature maxima in each sweep period to suppress effects of RAM. At an averaging time of 1 s and methane concentrations between 1.0 and 50 ppmv, the system implementing the 2f-WMS method surpassed the methane volume mixing ratio measurement targets with a precision of 1.6 ppmv (absorbance of 6.57×10–7 cm–1) and lower detection limit (LDL) of 1.5 ppmv (6.13×10–7 cm–1).

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Engineering, Mechanical

Grantor dc:publisher

Carleton University

Year dc:date.issued

2016

Author dc:creator

• Schoonbaert, Stephen

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright © 2016 the author(s). Theses may be used for non-commercial research, educational, or related academic purposes only. Such uses include personal study, research, scholarship, and teaching. Theses may only be shared by linking to Carleton University Institutional Repository and no part may be used without proper attribution to the author. No part may be used for commercial purposes directly or indirectly via a for-profit platform; no adaptation or derivative works are permitted without consent from the copyright owner.

Language dc:language.iso

en

DOI

10.22215/etd/2016-11325

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:carleton.scholaris.ca:20.500.14718/39502