Continuous wave laser absorption techniques for gasdynamic measurements in supersonic flows.

Line-of-sight measurements of velocity, temperature, pressure, density, and mass flux were performed in a transient shock tube flow using three laser absorption schemes. All methods employed an intracavity-doubled ring dye laser tuned to an OH transition in the A(2) summation operator(+) ? X(2)II (0,0) band at 306 nm. In the first scheme, the gas was labeled by 193.3-nm excimer photolysis of H(2)O, and the passage of the generated OH was detected downstream. In the second method, the laser was tuned at a rate of 3 kH(z) over the R(1)(7) and R(1)(11) line pair, and absorption was simultaneously monitored at 90 and 60 degrees with respect to the flow. Velocity was determined from the Doppler shift of the profiles and the temperature from the intensity ratio of the lines. Pressure was determined from both the magnitude of absorption and the collisional broadening. In the third method, the laser wavelength was fixed at a single frequency, and a continuous measurement of velocity and pressure was obtained using the signals from the two beam paths. All methods gave results which compare favorably to calculated values.