VELOCITY MEASUREMENTS IN HIGH TEMPERATURE GASES USING NO FLUORESCENCE

THIS PHASE I PROPOSAL DESCRIBES AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO NON-INTRUSIVE VELOCITY MEASUREMENT IN SUPERSONIC FLOWFIELDS BASED ON THE DOPPLER-SHIFTED FLUORESCENCE OF THE NO MOLECULE. A SUCCESSFUL DEMONSTRATION OF THIS CONCEPT WOULD REPRESENT A SIGNIFICANT ADVANCE IN BOTH NON-INTRUSIVE DIAGNOSTICS AND GENERAL PROPULSION INSTRUMENTATION. CURRENT VELOCITY MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES, SUCH AS HOT-WIRE ANEMOMETRY (BASED ON THE CONVECTIVE COOLING OF A SMALL, HEATED WIRE IN THE FLOW) AND LASER-DOPPLER ANEMOMETRY (BASED ON THE DOPPLER-SHIFT OF LASER LIGHT SCATTERED FROM PARTICLES SEEDED INTO THE FLOW) ARE GENERALLY INAPPLICABLE, OR SUBJECT TO LARGE SYSTEMATIC ERRORS IN COMPRESSIBLE, HIGH-TEMPERATURE FLOWFIELDS. THE NO FLUORESCENCE APPROACH DESCRIBED IN THIS PROPOSAL FINDS PARTICULAR APPLICATION IN SUPERSONIC COMBUSTION RESEARCH WHERE MEASUREMENTS AT COMBUSTOR INLET AND EXHAUST ARE REQUIRED. FURTHERMORE, THE TECHNIQUE IS CONCEPTUALLY AMENABLE FOR EXTENSION TO SIMULTANEOUS, MULTI-POINT MEASUREMENTS USING LASER SHEET ILLUMINATION AND FLUORESCENCE DETECTION VIA SENSITIVE, IMAGING DETECTOR ARRAYS.