Investigation of soot by two-colour four-wave mixing.

A novel technique has been used for the temporally resolved investigation of the interaction of laser radiation and soot in a flame. Based on established soot vaporisation models we developed a framework to calculate the two-colour four-wave mixing signal obtained in an acetylene/air diffusion flame at atmospheric pressure. The signal comprises a contribution due to soot and, depending on the wavelength of the probe laser, a contribution because of C2, which is generated by vaporising soot. For both parts of the signal we found a good agreement between measured and calculated power dependency. Furthermore, we measured spatial profiles of the signal in a Wolfhard-Parker slot burner. By analysing the different signal contributions we found that depending on the location within the flame there are particles with different C2 yield.

Temperature and flow-velocity measurements by use of laser-induced electrostrictive gratings.

Light scattering from laser-induced electrostrictive gratings has been used for simultaneous, instantaneous, nonintrusive, and remote measurements of temperature and velocity in a submerged air jet. We accomplished phase-sensitive detection of scattered light by superimposing two signal beams whose frequencies were Doppler shifted by the movement of the grating. Temperatures in the range 295-600 K and flow velocities in the range 10-100 m/s were measured.