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Facilities and Equipment
The facilities of the Flowfield Imaging Lab are located at the J.J. Pickle Research Campus and on UT's main campus. The main facilities include the High-Speed Wind Tunnel, Mach 3 Wind Tunnel, Turbulent Jet Flame Facility, Combustion Wind Tunnel and the 1.25 Second Droptower. Additionally we have a powerful suite of lasers and cameras for advanced laser-based imaging.

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Research Facilities
High-speed wind tunnel, 7 in. x 6 in. test section
Joint work with Prof. D.S. Dolling on turbulent boundary layer/shock interactions and high-speed cavity flow dynamics is conducted in the high-speed wind tunnel facility which can be operated at Mach 2 or Mach 5. Upstream air at 2500 psi drives the flow, which exits (loudly) into atmospheric conditions. The photo shows the double-pulse Nd:YAG laser used for particle image velocimetry in the flow.
Tunnel Schedule
Mach 5 set up
 
Fine scale turbulence facility
This facility is used to create a turbulent flow where the finest scales ofturbulence are large enough to be fully resolved by our optical diagnosticsystems. About the size of a telephone booth, the facility consists of anaxisymmetric coflowing jet that can produce a Kolmogorov scale of order 1 mm.This facility was used in studies of the finest dissipativescales in turbulent flows.
Fine scale turbulence facility
 
University of Texas Drop Tower Facility
The drop-tower is located at the basement of the Aerospace EngineeringDepartment. It stands 40ft tall and has a square cross-section of 8.3ft. The drop-tower provides low-gravitylevels of 10-30mg during the free fall of the experimental setup. This facility is used for studying nonpremixed turbulent flames in low-gravity.
1.25 second drop-tower
 
Pulsed plasma jet facility
The plasma jet facility is being used in studies of plasma ignition of solid propellants. The plasma is formed by rapid discharge of a .251 mF capacitor (5 kV charging voltage, 3.1 kJ stored energy) across a thin capillary (.12 in. diameter x 1.2 in.), causing ablation and ionization of the polycarbonate capillary surface. Temperatures of order 104 K, pressures of order 103 atm, and number densities in the range 1025-1026/m3 are achieved in the plasma.
plasma jet
 
High Repetition Rate Rayleigh Scattering Facility
The high repetition rate Rayleigh scattering system includes a diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser (5-25 kHz), multi-channel PMTs with multi-channel high voltage power supply system, multi-channel data acquisition (DAQ) system and custom-designed low f-number optical collection optics. A particle-free co-flowing jet flame facility was developed, which can be translated in two (X-Z) directions, and a LabVIEW program was developed to control and synchronize the experiment.
High Repetition Rate Rayleigh Scattering Facility
 
Planar jet flame facility
150 mm x 1 mm nozzle; The planar jet facility is used in studies of heat release in non-premixed flames, and turbulent mixing, as well as simultaneous PIV/OH PLIF measurements. The photo at right shows a hydrogen diffusion flame, which is made luminous by the presence of seeded alumina particles. A green pulsed laser sheet from an Nd:YAG laser, used in planar laser scattering, is seen passing through the flame.
diffusion flame
 
Mach 3 wind tunnel, 2 in. x 2 in. test section
The Mach 3 wind tunnel facility is seen at the upper left of the photo at right. The pressure difference which drives the flow is established by an upstream air supply at 200 psi, and vacuum conditions downstream. Also seen in the photo are the Nd:YAG laser, dye laser, and external frequency doubling/mixing units used in the nitric oxide fluorescence experiments in the supersonic wake.
Mach 3 wind tunnel

 

Research Equipment

Laboratory imaging equipment includes:

  • Slow-scan thermoelectrically cooled CCD camera, 1024x1024 pixels (Micro Luminetics Cryocam T5 series)
  • Back-illuminated slow-scan thermoelectrically cooled CCD camera, 512x512 pixels (Micro Luminetics Cryocam S5 series)
  • Four CCD cameras with frame straddling for PIV imaging, 1024x1024 pixels (Kodak MegaPlus ES1.0)
  • High-resolution CCD camera for PIV imaging, 2000x2000 pixels (Kodak MegaPlus 4.2)
  • Two intensified CCD cameras (Princeton Instruments)
  • 4500 frames/sec CCD camera (Kodak EktaPro HS4540)
  • Ultra-high framing rate CCD camera (SMD 64k1M)
  • High speed video camera (Pulnix TM6710)
  • Four high-speed CMOS cameras (2000-120,000fps, Photron Fastcam-APX)


Laser light sources include:
  • Two dual-cavity Nd:YAG lasers for PIV imaging (Spectra-Physics PIV-400)
  • Double-pulse laser for PIV imaging (Lumonics YM600)
  • Single-cavity Nd:YAG laser with frequency quadrupling (Spectra-Physics GCR-150)
  • Dye laser (Lumonics HyperDYE-300)
  • Diode-pumped Nd:YAG laser operating at 1 kHz - 25 kHz (Coherent Corona)
  • Two external frequency doubling/mixing units (Inrad Autotracker II)
  • Stimulated Raman cell