Seeding for laser velocimetry in confined supersonic flows with shocks

There is a lack of firm conclusions or recommendations in the open literature to guide laser velocimeter (LV) users in minimizing the uncertainty of LV data acquired in confined supersonic flows with steep velocity gradients. This fact led the NASA Lewis Research Center (LeRC) in Cleveland (Ohio, USA), and the Institute of Propulsion Technology of DLR in Cologne (Germany) to a joint research effort to improve reliability of LV measurements in supersonic flows. Over the years, NASA and DLR have developed different expertise in laser velocimetry, using different LV systems: Doppler and two-spot (L2F). The goal of the joint program is to improve the reliability of LV measurements by comparing results from experiments in confined supersonic flows performed under identical test conditions but using two different LV systems and several seed particle generators. Initial experiments conducted at the NASA LERC are reported in this paper. The experiments were performed in a narrow channel with Mach number 2.5 flow containing an oblique shock wave generated by an immersed 25-dg wedge.