Measurement of flame temperature distribution by infrared-rays computed tomography.

A method of infrared-rays computed tomography (CT) for measuring the rigorous temperature distribution of gases such as a flame was developed. This CT algorithm takes account of the effect of absorption by the gas itself which has not been counted in the past works. The importance of the effect was investigated by the simulation of the measured temperatures about model distributions. This technique was used to measure the temperature distributions of four types of stationary flames of premixed gases, and the results agreed fairly well with the ones measured by a thermocouple. At the same time, the possibility of a density distribution measurement of gas components such as H2O and CO2 is shown. It is proved that this CT method provides a new tool for combustion research.