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Cameras for Fluid Mechanics & Combustion Diagnostics

Andor’s portfolio of intensified sCMOS & iCCDs, EMCCD and sCMOS cameras provide a wide range of high sensitivity, fast detection solutions for the fluid, flow and combustion diagnostics ‘home-builder’ research community. With increasing research activity around new areas of combustion research such as net-zero and low carbon ‘green’ fuel initiatives, these detectors especially benefit applications in the field of reactive and non-reactive flows, jets and flames, with analysis techniques including:

  • Planar Laser-Induced Fluorescence (PLIF)
  • Chemiluminescence
  • Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV)
  • Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Spectroscopy (CARS)
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Detection solutions adapted to your needs

Andor high sensitivity cameras and modular spectrographs offer a comprehensive range of opto-mechanical interfaces, triggering and acquisition setup options to seamlessly integrate into a wide range of imaging and spectroscopy setups.

iStar sCMOS

iStar
sCMOS

  • 49 frames/sec (5.5 MP sensor) Up to 4 kHz fps with ROI
  • <2 ns time resolution
  • High dynamic range at full speed
Specifications Request Pricing
ZL41 Wave sCMOS

ZL41 Wave sCMOS

  • 100 frames/sec (5.5 MP sensor)Up to 4 kHz fps with ROI
  • Dual image inter-frame <300 ns
  • 33,000:1 dynamic range
Specifications Request Pricing

CB2
sCMOS

  • 106 frames/sec (24.5 Megapixel sensor) full frame
  • Global shutter
  • 8-bit, 10-bit, 12-bit or 16-bit readout speeds
Specifications Request Pricing
Kymera

Kymera, Newton & iXon

  • High sensitivity and fast speeds
  • Multi-kHz spectral rates
  • High throughput performance and high spectral resolution
Specifications Request Pricing

Techniques and Applications

PLIF/Chemiluminescence

PLIF is used for the measurement of concentration/mole fraction of species such as Na, OH, NO, O2, CH, CO or acetone, localised temperature, velocity, and pressure:

  • Discriminating OH and CO imaging for flames and combustors
  • NO imaging for NOx production in gas jets
  • Acetone imaging for fuel and air mixtures
  • Temperature imaging in flames and supersonic/hypersonic flows

Chemiluminescence is another technique used for flame studies. It is based on imaging chemically excited (as opposed to laser-excited like LIF/PLIF) species/radicals, e.g. OH*. Chemiluminescence is useful in situations where it is technically difficult or too costly to apply PLIF, e.g. optical engine diagnostics.

CH PLIF image taken on a Meso-scale distributed gas turbine combustor 2 mm above burner surface (horizontal cross section). Averaged data (200 frames) was acquired with iStar sCMOS. Courtesy of Dr. Tonghun Lee at Department of Mechanical Science and Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Contact Our Application Specialists Further Reading on PLIF

Particle Image Velocimetry

2D-PIV provides characterization of flow fields and turbulence dynamics in fluids. It relies on the imaging of light scattered by seeding particles added to the fluid/flow under analysis.

It uses a combination dual-pulse lasers and accurately synchronised detectors capable of dual imaging with extremely short inter-frame (e.g. sCMOS or gated sCMOS) to determine the two velocity components of features of interest in a single plane simultaneously. Variations include:

  • Stereo-PIV - 2 cameras are used to record simultaneously off-axis view of the same region of interest, and determine out-of-plane motion of the seeded particles.
  • Tomographic PIV - visualization of flow structure in 3D with the help of typically 4 cameras positioned around the flow volume to analyse

While CMOS/sCMOS cameras are detector of choice for PIV, gated intensified cameras such as iStar sCMOS can be used to better image (‘freeze’) supersonic flows, further remove strong unwanted background noise and enhance weak signals.

Flow field features of fractal impinging, 3D-PIV data taken with four Zyla sCMOS cameras, courtesy of Professor Astarita at Universit´a di Napoli Federico II. Contact Our Application Specialists Further Reading on PIV

Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Spectroscopy

(Rotational) CARS is a non-linear spectroscopy technique used for combustion diagnostics including chemical species identification, species concentration measurement, but also to provide non-invasive map temperatures in combustion engines and flames.

Due to the weak nature of the CARS signal and need for multi-kHz acquisition rates, electron-multiplying EMCCDs are favoured for CARS thermometry

CARS thermometry performed on Hencken Burner flame with H2/Air equivalence ratio of O (298K) and 0.7 (2012K). Spectra averaged over 2000 shots and calibrated according to instrument response function (IRF). Acquired with Andor iXon EMCCD in crop mode to achieve 5 kHz spectral rates. Courtesy of Pr Lucht at School of Mechanical Engineering, Purdue University. Thomas et al, Technique developments and performance analysis of chirped-probe-pulse femtosecond coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering combustion thermometry, Applied Optics Vol. 56, No. 31, 2017, pp. 8797-8810 Contact Our Application Specialists Further Reading on CARS

Customer Publications

Author Title Year
L Guastoni et al Fully convolutional networks for velocity-field predictions based on the wall heat flux in turbulent boundary layers | Theoretical and Computational Fluid Dynamics 2025
G Lee et al Development of an Optically Accessible Mach 3.5 Axisymmetric Direct Connect/Semi-Free Jet Supersonic Combustion Flowpath | AIAA SciTech Forum 2025
I Tirelli et al Full-domain POD modes from PIV asynchronous patches 2025
D Shimokuri et al Low NOx ammonia / methane combustion with highly preheated air in a furnace 2025
J Sun et al Fluorescence lifetime imaging of nitric oxide in nanosecond pulsed discharge-assisted NH3/air flames - IOPscience 2025
S White et al Observing simultaneous low temperature heat release and deflagration in a spark ignition engine using formaldehyde planar laser induced fluorescence - ScienceDirect 2025
J Sun et al A comprehensive study on dynamics of flames in a nanosecond pulsed discharge. Part II: Plasma-assisted ammonia and methane combustion - ScienceDirect 2025
Y Bao et al A comprehensive study on dynamics of flames in a nanosecond pulsed discharge. Part I: Discharge formation and gas heating - ScienceDirect 2025
D Lim et al Impact of metal fuel on flame dynamics and structural instability in electrically controlled solid propellants - ScienceDirect 2025
L Franceschalli et al An assessment of event-based imaging velocimetry for efficient estimation of low-dimensional coordinates in turbulent flows - ScienceDirect 2025

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