Transonic rotor flow-measurement technique using holographic interferometry

Holographic interferometry is used to record interferograms of the flow near a hovering transonic rotor blade. A pulsed ruby laser recorded 40 interferograms with a 2 ft dia. view field near the model rotor blade tip operating at a tip Mach number of 0.90. The experimental procedure is presented and example interferograms recorded in the rotor's tip path plane. In addition, a method currently being pursued to obtain quantitative flow information using computer assisted tomography (CAT) with the holographic interferogram data, is outlined.