Spirometer techniques for measuring molar composition in argon carbon dioxide mixtures

This paper examines a new technique for measuring gas composition through the use of a spirometer. A spirometer is high precision pressure transducer which measures the speed of sound in a gas through the emission and reception of ultrasonic pulses, commonly used in medicine to measure patient lung capacity. The spirometer was successfully calibrated to measure gas composition to an accuracy of 1.75% ± 1.23% by ratio by weight. By using a spirometer, the speed of sound was measured for a trapped volume of Argon CO₂ mixtures at ratios of 80 : 20, 85 : 15, 90 : 10, 95 : 5, and 100 : 0. The temperature dependence of the transit time was observed to behave according to the Laplace Formula, except for the presence of dramatic drops that were dependent on the Argon concentration. An argument is presented that these drops are technical limitations of the spirometer.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2007

Author dc:creator

• Chonde, Daniel Burje

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Peter Fisher.

• Physics.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/40905

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/40905