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Cameras for Fluid Mechanics & Combustion Diagnostics

Andor’s portfolio of intensified sCMOS, 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. These detectors benefit especially 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

  • 50 frames/sec (5.5 MP sensor) Up to 4 kHz fps with ROI
  • <2 ns time resolution
  • High dynamic range
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
Kymera

Kymera, Newton & iXon

  • High sensitivity
  • Multi-kHz spectral rates
  • High throughput 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 an other 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.

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.

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

Customer Publications

Author Title Year
Z. Chang et al Chirped Probe Pulse Femtosecond Cars H2 Measurements At Elevated Pressure And Temperature  2022
D. R. Richardson et al Femtosecond Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Spectroscopy in a Cold-Flow Hypersonic Wind Tunnel for Simultaneous Pressure and Temperature Measurements 2022
N. S. Rodrigues et al A Comparison of NO Laser-induced Fluorescence Models at conditions relevant to Supersonic and Hypersonic Flows 2022
S. Abe et al Experimental investigation of natural convection and gas mixing behaviors driven by outer surface cooling with and without density stratification consisting of an air-helium gas mixture in a large-scale enclosed vessel 2022
M. L. Passarelli et al Experimental Characterization of a Lean Prevaporized Premixed Combustor for Supersonic Transport Applications  2022
J. Saavedra et al Flow conditioning system for tri-sonic high pressure aerothermal testing 2021
D. Baccarella et al Isolator-combustor interactions in a circular model scramjet with thermal and non-thermal choking-induced unstart 2021
D. Fries et al Turbulent mixing and trajectories of jets in a supersonic cross-flow with different injectants 2021
E. J. Nissen et al Shock-induced kinetics and cellular structures of liquid nitromethane detonation 2021
A. Guemes et al Experimental Assessment of RANS Models for Wind Load Estimation over Solar-Panel Arrays  2021
G. Xiong et al Laser induced incandescence measurement of soot in ethylene buoyant turbulent diffusion flames under normal and reduced oxygen concentrations 2021
F. Bauer et al Three-dimensional particle size determination in a laminar diffusion flame by tomographic laser-induced incandescence 2021
R. Castellanos et al On the uncertainty of boundary-layer parameters from Ensemble PTV data 2021
J. J. Cerutti et al Aerodynamic drag reduction by means of platooning configurations of light commercial vehicles: A flow field analysis 2021
G. Cafiero et al Turbulence properties in jets with fractal grid turbulence 2021