Modeling Aspects of Sound Speed in Air for Ultrasonic Industrial Applications

Abstract:

In general, the sound speed in air depends on the air characteristics, such as temperature, pressure, humidity, gas composition, and air turbulence. It has direct influence on performance of ultrasonic sensing applications, like those based on the distance measuring and the sound wavelength. For many industrial applications, the sound speed in air is considered as constant, but this is true only for constant environment properties, like indoor environments with air-conditioning systems. Even then, the speed of sound can have different constant values for different sets of environment properties, generated by their spatial or temporal variations. For outdoor environments, the supposition of constant sound speed can generate important errors of distance estimation, In addition, for low temperature values, the real distance to an object is smaller than measured distance by ultrasonic sensing, and this can be a dangerous situation. Hence, simple and accurate models of sound speed in air are very important for ultrasonic industrial applications. In this paper, models of sound speed in air are studied, and new models are proposed, which are capable of dealing with uncertainties generated by unknown air characteristics. In addition, expert rules for model selection are generated, and comparative simulation results are presented.

• Periodical: Advanced Materials Research (Volumes 712-715)
• Pages: 1580-1585
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.712-715.1580
• Online since: June 2013
• Authors: Viorel Nicolau*
• Keywords: Estimation, Industrial Applications, Modeling, Speed of Sound, Ultrasonic Sensing

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DOI: 10.1063/1.1580055