Provided herein are systems and methods for testing a heat-not-burn tobacco product. A heater carrier may be movable with respect to a tobacco product placement region and configured to heat a first end of a tobacco product located in the tobacco product placement region. A puffing simulator is configured to fluidically couple to a second end of the tobacco product. The puffing simulator is configured to draw air through the tobacco product thereby simulating a puff of the tobacco product. A thermocouple placement right is configured to selectively position one or more thermocouples in or along the tobacco product. A drill is configured to selectively drill one or more holes at positions within the tobacco product. The thermocouple(s) are positioned on or within the tobacco product and generate data corresponding to detected temperatures of the tobacco product as the puffing simulator simulates one or more puffs.

A method for testing burning performance of a dark-colored cigarette using a dark-colored cigarette paper is provided. The dark-colored cigarette paper has a grayscale less than 255. The method includes: simulating, by a robotic arm, a cigarette smoking process and environment; acquiring, by a full-vision camera system, an image of a burn line and ash column region of the dark-colored cigarette; and analyzing a burning performance indicator of the dark-colored cigarette according to coordinate information of the burn line and ash column region. The method is based on a surface reflection characteristic of the dark-colored cigarette paper and a principle of optical reflection to light and highlight an edge of the dark-colored cigarette sample by a light source at a certain angle from a side. In this way, the method forms a chromatic aberration to localize the dark-colored cigarette sample, thereby testing the burning performance of the dark-colored cigarette sample.

A modular smoking system is provided, including a substantially annular carousel that includes a plurality of smoking article ports configured to receive smoking articles and a plurality of analysis ports, the carousel having an inner surface and an outer surface radially spaced from the inner surface, in which a plurality of identically-dimensioned aerosol-flow channels are defined through the carousel, each aerosol-flow channel extending radially through the carousel between a smoking article port located at the inner surface of the carousel and a corresponding analysis port located at the outer surface of the carousel, and at least one aerosol analysis module located radially outwards from the outer surface of the carousel and configured to couple to the analysis port for analysis of an aerosol generated by a smoking article coupled to a smoking article port.

A method for comprehensively analyzing and/or evaluating cigarette burning quality index is disclosed. The steps include collecting cigarette burning quality index data, filtering the cigarette burning quality index data, standardizing cigarette data, and measuring cigarette burning quality. The importance of the cigarette burning quality indicators can also be evaluated. The method for comprehensively analyzing and/or evaluating cigarette burning quality indicators can reflect general laws more accurately by maintaining the sample distribution through a singularity detection method, and analyzing correlations of each index with cigarette performance from multiple perspectives, to fuse them into a comprehensive measurement value. The importance ranking and weight of indicators can be obtained more completely and stably.

A sensor apparatus may include a channel structure configured to couple with an external element and a fluid conduit, such that the channel structure may receive a fluid, at least partially drawn through the external element from an ambient environment, and direct the fluid through the fluid conduit. A sensor may generate sensor data indicating a flow rate of the fluid through the fluid conduit based on monitoring a variation in a pressure at a location in hydrodynamic contact with the fluid conduit and in relation to an ambient pressure of the ambient environment. The sensor apparatus may enable generation of improved topography information associated with flows of fluid drawn from the external element based on measuring a local pressure at the location in hydrodynamic contact with the fluid conduit and determining the ambient pressure based on monitoring the local pressure over time.

An ashtray is disclosed for use with a smoking machine for smoking a smoking article. The ashtray comprises directional fins underneath the ashtray for directing airflow over the smoking article. This can allow the direction of airflow to be confined to a well-defined path, and turbulence in the airflow to be reduced.

A method for testing burning performance of a dark-colored cigarette using a dark-colored cigarette paper is provided. The dark-colored cigarette paper has a grayscale less than 255. The method includes: simulating, by a robotic arm, a cigarette smoking process and environment; acquiring, by a full-vision camera system, an image of a burn line and ash column region of the dark-colored cigarette; and analyzing a burning performance indicator of the dark-colored cigarette according to coordinate information of the burn line and ash column region. The method is based on a surface reflection characteristic of the dark-colored cigarette paper and a principle of optical reflection to light and highlight an edge of the dark-colored cigarette sample by a light source at a certain angle from a side. In this way, the method forms a chromatic aberration to localize the dark-colored cigarette sample, thereby testing the burning performance of the dark-colored cigarette sample.

A sensor apparatus may include a channel structure configured to couple with an external element and a fluid conduit, such that the channel structure may receive a fluid, at least partially drawn through the external element from an ambient environment, and direct the fluid through the fluid conduit. A sensor may generate sensor data indicating a flow rate of the fluid through the fluid conduit based on monitoring a variation in a pressure at a location in hydrodynamic contact with the fluid conduit and in relation to an ambient pressure of the ambient environment. The sensor apparatus may enable generation of improved topography information associated with flows of fluid drawn from the external element based on measuring a local pressure at the location in hydrodynamic contact with the fluid conduit and determining the ambient pressure based on monitoring the local pressure over time.

In order to reliably ensure the association of smoking products and the results of analysis with the tobacco products and guard against mistakes or data losses, there is provided a smoking machine whose structural components such as the smoke trap, a smoke trap component and/or a tobacco product magazine that is being used are provided with respective identity elements in which items of information specific to the structural component are contained and from which items of information are readable and/or into which items of information are insertible. A method of smoking tobacco products in a smoking machine comprises the storage of information about the respective structural components of the smoking machine and/or the processes of writing-into and reading-out the results of measurements and/or analysis into these identity elements as well as the process of linking to a database.

A method for comprehensively analyzing and/or evaluating cigarette burning quality index is disclosed. The steps include collecting cigarette burning quality index data, filtering the cigarette burning quality index data, standardizing cigarette data, and measuring cigarette burning quality. The importance of the cigarette burning quality indicators can also be evaluated. The method for comprehensively analyzing and/or evaluating cigarette burning quality indicators can reflect general laws more accurately by maintaining the sample distribution through a singularity detection method, and analyzing correlations of each index with cigarette performance from multiple perspectives, to fuse them into a comprehensive measurement value. The importance ranking and weight of indicators can be obtained more completely and stably.