Monitoring Vapor Phase Concentration in Supersonic Flows

This work discusses the development of a compact Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectrometer (TDLAS) for gas phase mixing ratio and temperature measurements of condensible vapors, in particular H2O and D2O, in supersonic flows. Through extensive pressure trace measurements and mass balances on the incoming species, the expected mixing ratio and temperature profiles of the condensible species along the supersonic nozzle have been characterized. Using a Tunable Diode Infrared laser operating in the 8 microns region, the possibility of nonintrusively measuring the gas phase mixing ratio and the temperature (even simultaneously) in a supersonic nozzle is demonstrated. The acquired spectroscopic data and the pressure trace measurements are compared and the results suggest the possibility to improve the instrument set-up and to improve the quality of the measurements. Also, the interpretation of our initial experimental results and the comparison with the pressure traces measurements suggest reasons to further investigate the condensation behavior of D2O and H2O