Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

8-1992

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Physics

Major Professor

Arthur A. Mason

Committee Members

Horace Crater, James Lewis, Joel Muehlhauser, Tom Giel

Abstract

The technique of modified line reversal is investigated and developed to allow accurate measurements on fluctuating coal fired magnetohydrodynamic plasmas and flows. Generalized modified line reversal equations applicable to any geometry and optical system are developed and presented. The generalized equations are specialized to the two most common optical systems, focussed and collimated, employed for modified line reversal measurements. Approximations introduced by specializing to the specific optical systems are investigated. Vignetting of the optical system images is shown to introduce large biases in the temperature measurement for certain optical configurations commonly applied. It is shown that symmetric optical systems are unacceptable for line reversal measurements. The errors introduced by non-simultaneous measurement of the required line reversal parameters due to rapidly fluctuating plasma characteristics are characterized. Line reversal signal and temperature measurements made on a coal fired MHD plasma are used to quantify the error in the temperature measurement due to non-simultaneous sampling of the measured line reversal parameters. A simple modified line reversal system based on interference filters and photodiodes that employs spatial separation to obtain the required line reversal parameters is described. Gas temperatures measured with devices using both the spatial and temporal separation techniques are compared. Modified line reversal temperature measurements are compared to theoretically predicted temperatures as well as CARS and high velocity thermocouple temperature measurements.

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