Simultaneous measurements of fuel concentration and temperature in gas jets by LIBS

Abstract Laser induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) enables quantitative measurements of the equivalence ratio in flames, spray and gas jets. Although there are always considerable temperature differences between the calibrations and the LIBS measurements in flames and fuel jets, the temperature effects on LIBS were rarely mentioned and not corrected in the previous LIBS measurements. In this study, a novel method to simultaneously measure the equivalence ratio and the gas temperature by LIBS in a single laser shot is proposed. This method can correct the temperature effects based on the linear correlation between the peak intensity ratio (PIR) of atomic lines and the gas temperature. The PIR of H656/N746 and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of H656 are employed to establish calibration curves with the equivalence ratio and the gas temperature, respectively, and both of calibrations show high coefficients of determination (R2). Then, the measurement accuracy and precision of the proposed method are discussed in detail. The total uncertainties in measurements of equivalence ratio and gas temperature are estimated by 5.6% and 5.8%, respectively. Finally, the simultaneous measurements of equivalence ratios and gas temperatures in methane jets at different positions and at different injection pressures are conducted. The comparison of equivalence ratios before and after correction of the temperature effects indicates that the accuracy of the fuel concentration measurements by LIBS would be remarkably degraded if the temperature variations were neglected.