Modeling the response of photoacoustic gas sensors

S.L. Firebaugh[1], F. Roignant[2], and E.A. Terray[3]

[1]United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Maryland, USA
[2]Polytechnique Nantes, Nantes, France
[3]Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA
Published in 2009

A fast, high-sensitivity detector is required for studies of environmentally relevant gases. Photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS), an absorption spectroscopy technique in which absorption is detected as sound, is explored as a possible solution. A tuning-fork based PAS sensor is modeled using COMSOL. The model combines the acoustic and piezoelectric modules and also includes viscous damping. The model results are consistent with published experimental results.

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