Short Pulse Holographic Interferometric Reconstruction Three-Dimensional Flow Field Sensor

To address the U.S. Air Force need for a new diagnostic technique for measuring high speed flows, Physical Optics Corporation (POC) proposes to advance our development of the new Short Pulse Holographic Interferometric Reconstruction (SPHIRE) three-dimensional sensor based on short pulse light-in-flight holographic recording of the flow field. The proposed sensor will overcome the limitations of current point sensors for 3D flow field measurement, because SPHIRE is a full-field 3D optical sensor with light-speed holographic recording of an event in thousands of temporal sequence images. From these images, a highly sensitive holographic interferometric analysis can determine the temporal and spatial distribution of 3D velocity temperature and pressure of the high-speed flow field. In Phase I POC demonstrated the feasibility of the concept by developing a design of a SPHIRE sensor system, specifying the required key components available showing that the system can achieve the spatial and temporal resolution required for Mach 0.6 to 3 flow fields, and demonstrating the concept by laboratory experiments. In Phase II POC will design and build a fully operational prototype SPHIRE system and integrate it with data collection and 3D reconstruction software. POC will demonstrate a SPHIRE prototype at an Air Force test tunnel.