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Abstract Background The paper presents a newly researched acoustic system for blood volume measurements for the developed family of Polish ventricular assist devices. The pneumatic heart-supporting devices are still the preferred solution in some cases, and monitoring of their operation, especially the temporary blood volume, is yet to be solved. Methods The prototype of the POLVAD-EXT prosthesis developed by the Foundation of Cardiac Surgery Development, Zabrze, Poland, is equipped with the newly researched acoustic blood volume measurement system based on the principle of Helmholtz’s acoustic resonance. The results of static volume measurements acquired using the acoustic sensor were verified by measuring the volume of the liquid filling the prosthesis. Dynamic measurements were conducted on the hybrid model of the human cardiovascular system at the Foundation, with the Transonic T410 (11PLX transducer - 5% uncertainty) ultrasound flow rate sensor, used as the reference. Results The statistical analysis of a series of static tests have proved that the sensor solution provides blood volume measurement results with uncertainties (understood as a standard mean deviation) of less than 10%. Dynamic tests show a high correlation between the results of the acoustic system and those obtained by flow rate measurements using an ultrasound transit time type sensor. Conclusions The results show that noninvasive, online temporary blood volume measurements in the POLVAD-EXT prosthesis, making use of the newly developed acoustic system, provides accurate static and dynamic measurements results. Conducted research provides the preliminary view on the possibility of reducing the additional sensor chamber volume in future.

A computer measurement system, designed and built by authors, dedicated to location and description of partial discharges (PD) in oil power transformers examined by means of the acoustic emission (AE) method is presented. The measurement system is equipped with 8 measurement channels and ensures: monitoring of signals, registration of data in real time within a band of 25-1000 kHz in laboratory and real conditions, basic and advanced analysis of recorded signals. The basic analysis carried out in the time, frequency and time-frequency domains deals with general properties of the AE signals coming from PDs. The advanced analysis, performed in the discrimination threshold domain, results in identification of signals coming from different acoustic sources as well as location of these sources in the examined transformers in terms of defined by authors descriptors and maps of these descriptors on the side walls of the tested transformer tank. Examples of typical results of laboratory tests carried out with the use of the built-in measurement system are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the paper, a gas optoelectronic sensor based on interferometric structure has been presented. Active polymer Nafion® layer deposited at the top of the optical fibre forms the Fabry--Perot interferometer. Interaction with gas changes the physical properties of sensing layer, hence the interference conditions are fulfilled for different wavelengths. Sensor performance for different humidity levels has been measured. The influence of humidity variations on sensing layer is investigated as well. In order to suppress the moisture induced instability of the sensor different inhibiting layers have been deposited and their performance has been investigated. In the paper, a wide investigation of the sensor in ammonia atmosphere has been shown. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]