An NIR spectroscopy fluid analyzing system using a series of LED's, each
having its own preselected center wavelength, as illumination sources.
These wavelengths have overlapping spectral widths, such that the
measurement covers a broad spectrum. The LED's illuminate the fluid
sample sequentially, and subsequently the transmission absorbance through
the sample and the reflectance or scattering from the sample is measured
for the wavelength range of each LED. The measurements are performed
using photodetectors. The concentrations of component parts of the fluid
are expressed in the form of a polynomial, which is a function of the
measured transmitted and/or reflected intensities, and of empirical
coefficients, which are extracted by prior statistical analysis on
measured intensities obtained from a large number of test samples having
known concentrations of the component. A novel sample chamber, capable of
performing optical absorption measurements on a flowing sample of fluid,
is described.