Digital high-speed camera system for combustion research using UV-laser diagnostic under microgravity at Bremen drop tower

A digital high-speed camera- and recording system for 2D UV- laser spectroscopy was recently completed at Bremen drip tower. At the moment the primary users are the microgravity combustion researchers. The current project studies the reaction zones during the process of combustion. Particularly OH-radicals are detected 2D by using the method of laser induced predissociation fluorescence (LIPF). A pulsed high-energy excimer lasersystem combined with a two- staged intensified CCD-camera allows a repetition rate of 250 images per second, according to the maximum laser pulse repetition. The laser system is integrated at the top of the 110 m high evacuatable drop tube. Motorized mirrors are necessary to achieve a stable beam position within the area of interest during the drop of the experiment-capsule. The duration of 1 drop will be 4.7 seconds. About 1500 images are captured and stored onboard the drop capsule 96 Mbyte RAM image storagesystem. After saving capsule and data, a special PC-based image processing software visualizes the movies and extracts physical information out of the images. Now, after two and a half years of development the system is working operational and capable of high temporal 2D LIPF- measuring of OH, H2O, O2 and CO concentrations and 2D temperature distribution of these species.© (1997) COPYRIGHT SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.