Estimation of nuclear counting by a nonlinear filter based on a hypothesis test and a double exponential smoothing

Romain Coulon (1) , Jonathan Nicolas Dumazert (1) , Vladimir Kondrasovs (1) , Emmanuel Rohée (1) , Stéphane Normand (1)

1 LCAE (CEA, LIST) - Laboratoire Capteurs et Architectures Electroniques (CEA, LIST)

Online nuclear counting represents a challenge due to the stochastic nature of radioactivity. The counting data have to be filtered in order to provide a precise and accurate estimation of the count rate, while ensuring a response time compatible with the application in view. An innovative filter is presented in this paper to address this issue. The filter is nonlinear and based on a Centered Significance Test (CST) providing a local maximum likelihood estimation of the signal. This nonlinear approach allows enables to smooth the counting signal while maintaining a fast response when brutal change in activity occurs. The filter is then improved by the implementation of a Brown's double Exponential Smoothing (BES). The filter has been validated and compared to other state-of-the-art smoothing filters. The CST* filter shows a significant improvement compared to all tested smoothing filters.

Mots clés: Algorithms; filters; radiation detectors; signal processing; NEUTRON DETECTION; PORTAL MONITORS; MOVING-AVERAGE; SCINTILLATORS; GADOLINIUM; ALGORITHM; RATEMETER; BISMUTH; SPEED; RATES; radioactivity; ionizing radiation; instrumentation; nuclear instrumentation; Online nuclear counting

Domaines: Instrumentations et Détecteurs [physics.ins-det]; Traitement du signal et de l'image [eess.SP]; Physique Nucléaire Expérimentale [nucl-ex]

Romain Coulon, Jonathan Nicolas Dumazert, Vladimir Kondrasovs, Emmanuel Rohée, Stéphane Normand. Estimation of nuclear counting by a nonlinear filter based on a hypothesis test and a double exponential smoothing. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 2016, 63 (5), pp.2671 - 2676. ⟨10.1109/TNS.2016.2601785⟩. ⟨hal-01867859⟩