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Washington University in St. Louis

Real-time Analysis of Aerosol Size Distributions with the Fast Integrated Mobility Spectrometer (FIMS)

Abstract

dc:description.abstract

<p>The Fast Integrated Mobility Spectrometer (FIMS) has emerged as an innovative instrument in the aerosol science domain. It employs a spatially varying electric field to separate charged aerosol particles by their electrical mobilities. These separated particles are then enlarged through vapor condensation and imaged in real time by a high-speed CCD camera. FIMS achieves near 100% detection efficiency for particles ranging from 10 nm to 600 nm with a temporal resolution of one second. However, FIMS’ real-time capabilities are limited by an offline data analysis process. Deferring analysis until hours or days after measurement makes FIMS' capabilities less valuable for probing dynamic, rapidly changing environments. Our research aims to address this limitation by developing a real-time data analysis pipeline for FIMS, allowing for adaptive aerosol measuring, eliminating lengthy delays between data collection and analysis, and boosting FIMS' potential for aerosol research. The pipeline is written in C++, making it suitable for deployment even in low-power embedded systems. The design also allows for easy future upgrades like new data types or machine learning integrations. Benchmarks confirm its efficiency. All real-time components operate within established limits, yielding results that are consistent with traditional offline methods. The real-time capabilities of this pipeline significantly extend FIMS's utility in dynamic, rapidly changing environments.</p>

Degree

thesis:*
Name thesis:degree_name
Master of Science (MS)
Level thesis:degree_level
Thesis
Discipline thesis:degree_discipline
Computer Science & Engineering
Year dc:date.available
2023

Author and committee

dc:creator, dc:contributor.*
Author dc:creator
  • Wang, Daisy
Contributors dc:contributor
  • Jeremy Buhler
  • Jeremy Buhler Christopher Gill Jian Wang

Subjects

dc:subject × 6

Rights

dc:rights
Statement dc:rights
  • I have not registered my thesis with the U.S. Copyright Office, and do not intend to.
Language dc:language
English (en)

Identifiers

dc:identifier.*
OAI identifier oai:identifier
oai:openscholarship.wustl.edu:eng_etds-2016

Chain of custody

source
Harvested from
Washington University in St. Louis
Base URL
openscholarship.wustl.edu/do/oai/
Last updated
2026-07-24
Source record
OAI-PMH GetRecord
citation

Wang, Daisy. Real-time Analysis of Aerosol Size Distributions with the Fast Integrated Mobility Spectrometer (FIMS). Thesis thesis, 2023. https://doi.org/10.7936/cdb5-j514