Relative Humidity Measurement of Air in Low-Temperature Ranges Using Low-Frequency Acoustic Waves and Correlation Signal Processing Techniques

Abstract

Air relative humidity (RH) is an important control parameter in many industrial processes. The acoustic method is a novel technique to measure air humidity non-intrusively. Relevant research is limited. Existing methods use ultrasonic waves as a sound source and air humidity is measured by measuring the sound attenuation. In this paper, a novel air humidity measurement system using low-frequency sound waves as a sound source and two acoustic sensors is proposed. Air humidity is acquired by measuring sound speed in the air. Sound speed mainly depends on air temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, and air composition. The influence of air temperature, atmospheric pressure, and air constituent concentrations on the RH measurement is analyzed theoretically. A 0.1 s linear chirp signal in the frequency range of 200–500 Hz is selected as the sound source. Sound travel time is calculated by cross-correlating the sound signals received by the two acoustic sensors. To improve the accuracy of the sound speed measurement, sound speed under different RH points is obtained through reference RH experiments and substituted into the calibration equation. Then, equivalent sound path length and systematic delay are estimated using the least squares method. After obtaining these two parameter values, the sound speed measured by the system is closer to the theoretical value at the same RH point. In validation experiments using RH measured by a thermo-hygrometer as a comparison, the relative errors of the acoustically measured RH are within 9.9% in the RH range of 40.7–87.1%, and the standard deviation is within 4.8%.