An electronic nose for the identification of Forane R134a in an air conditioned atmosphere

An electronic nose based on a TCS type sensor array for the main detection of Forane R134a has been characterised under closely controlled gas tempera ture and humidity conditions. This paper presents the dependence of the TGS sensor array to the gas temperature and the relative humidity rate values. A model is proposed for the sensor array behaviour for each of these param eters. Afterwards, the importance of these two atmospheric parameters is un derlined and the need to control or to include them into a database is prov en. We present the ability to identify the target gas with the discriminant factorial analysis method even if the relative humidity or the gas tempera ture differs from the nose database learning process. (C) 2000 Elsevier Sci ence S.A. All rights reserved.