Cameras for Fluid Mechanics & Combustion Diagnostics

Andor’s portfolio of intensified sCMOS, EMCCD and sCMOS cameras provide a wide range of high sensitivity, fast detection solutions for the fluid, flow and combustion diagnostics ‘home-builder’ Research community. These detectors benefit especially applications in the field of reactive and non-reactive flows, jets and flames, with analysis techniques including:

Planar Laser-Induced Fluorescence (PLIF)
Chemiluminescence
Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV)
Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Spectroscopy (CARS)

Detection solutions adapted to your needs

Andor high sensitivity cameras and modular spectrographs offer a comprehensive range of opto-mechanical interfaces, triggering and acquisition setup options to seamlessly integrate into a wide range of imaging and spectroscopy setups.

iStar sCMOS

50 frames/sec (5.5 MP sensor) Up to 4 kHz fps with ROI
<2 ns time resolution
High dynamic range

Specifications

Zyla sCMOS

100 frames/sec (5.5 MP sensor)Up to 4 kHz fps with ROI
Dual image inter-frame <300 ns
33,000:1 dynamic range

Specifications

Kymera, Newton & iXon

High sensitivity
Multi-kHz spectral rates
High throughput and high spectral resolution

Specifications

Techniques and Applications

PLIF/Chemiluminescence

PLIF is used for the measurement of concentration/mole fraction of species such as Na, OH, NO, O₂, CH, CO or acetone, localised temperature, velocity, and pressure:

Discriminating OH and CO imaging for flames and combustors
NO imaging for NOx production in gas jets
Acetone imaging for fuel and air mixtures
Temperature imaging in flames and supersonic/hypersonic flows

Chemiluminescence is an other technique used for flame studies’. It is based on imaging chemically excited (as opposed to laser-excited like LIF/PLIF) species/radicals, e.g. OH*. Chemiluminescence is useful in situations where it is technically difficult or too costly to apply PLIF, e.g. optical engine diagnostics.

CH PLIF image taken on a Meso-scale distributed gas turbine combustor 2 mm above burner surface (horizontal cross section). Averaged data (200 frames) was acquired with iStar sCMOS. Courtesy of Dr. Tonghun Lee at Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Particle Image Velocimetry

2D-PIV provides characterization of flow fields and turbulence dynamics in fluids. It relies on the imaging of light scattered by seeding particles added to the fluid/flow under analysis.

It uses a combination dual-pulse lasers and accurately synchronised detectors capable of dual imaging with extremely short inter-frame (e.g. sCMOS or gated sCMOS) to determine the two velocity components of features of interest in a single plane simultaneously. Variations include:

Stereo-PIV - 2 cameras are used to record simultaneously off-axis view of the same region of interest, and determine out-of-plane motion of the seeded particles.
Tomographic PIV - visualization of flow structure in 3D with the help of typically 4 cameras positioned around the flow volume to analyse

While CMOS/sCMOS cameras are detector of choice for PIV, gated intensified cameras such as iStar sCMOS can be used to better image (‘freeze’) supersonic flows, further remove strong unwanted background noise and enhance weak signals.

$Flow field features of fractal impinging, 3D-PIV data taken with four Zyla sCMOS cameras, courtesy of Professor Astarita at Universit´a di Napoli Federico II.$ Further Reading on PIV

Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Spectroscopy

(Rotational) CARS is a non-linear spectroscopy technique used for combustion diagnostics including chemical species identification, species concentration measurement, but also to provide non-invasive map temperatures in combustion engines and flames.

Due to the weak nature of the CARS signal and need for multi-kHz acquisition rates, electron-multiplying EMCCDs are favoured for CARS thermometry

CARS thermometry performed on Hencken Burner flame with H2/Air equivalence ratio of O (298K) and 0.7 (2012K). Spectra averaged over 2000 shots and calibrated according to instrument response function (IRF). Acquired with Andor iXon EMCCD in crop mode to achieve 5 kHz spectral rates. Courtesy of Pr Lucht at School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University. Thomas et al, Technique developments and performance analysis of chirped-probe-pulse femtosecond coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering combustion thermometry, Applied Optics Vol. 56, No. 31, 2017, pp. 8797-8810

Customer Publications

Author	Title	Year
Skiba et al	Premixed flames subjected to extreme levels of turbulence part I: Flame structure and a new measured regime diagram	2017
Ceglia et al	Experimental investigation on the three-dimensional organization of the flow structures in precessing jets by tomographic PIV	2017
Payri et al	The effect of nozzle geometry over ignition delay and flame lift-off of reacting direct-injection sprays for three different fuels	2017
Thomas et al	Femtosecond Chirped-Probe-Pulse Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Scattering Thermometry of Nitrogen in a Piloted Spray Burner	2017
Retter et al	Spatially correlated temperature, oxygen, and fuel measurements in a plasma-assisted hydrogen diffusion flame by one-dimensional fs/ps rotational CARS imaging	2017
Courtney et al	Pure-rotational H2 thermometry by ultrabroadband coherent anti-stokes Raman spectroscopy	2017
Li et al	Micro-PIV Measurements of Multiphase Flow of Water and Liquid/Supercritical CO2 in 2D Heterogeneous Porous Micromodels	2016
Richardson et al	Comparison of Chirped-Probe-Pulse Femtosecond and Hybrid Femtosecond/Picosecond CARS for Gas Phase Thermometry	2016
Ehn et al	Investigations of microwave stimulation of a turbulent low-swirl flame	2016
Pastor et al	An experimental study of the effects of fuel properties on reactive spray evolution using Primary Reference Fuels	2016
Hossain et al	A Detailed Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Flow Physics in a Single Row Narrow Impingement Channel Using PIV, LES and RANS	2016
Smolke et al	Experimental and numerical studies of fuel and hydrodynamic effects on piloted turbulent premixed jet flames	2016
Kearney et al	Hybrid fs/ps Rotational CARS Temperature and Oxygen Measurements and Soot LII Measurements in a Turbulent C2H4-Fueled Jet Flame	2016
Okuyama et al	Flame Visualization and Mechanism of Fast Flame Propagation through a Meso-scale Packed Porous Bed in a High-pressure Environment temperature profile	2015

Website by Miramar Communications Ltd