High-Spatial-Resolution OH and CH2O PLIF Visualization in a Dual-Mode Scramjet Combustor

A high-spatial-resolution planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) imaging system was constructed and used to image a cavity-stabilized, premixed ethylene-air flame. The flame was created within a continuous flow, electrically-heated supersonic combustion facility consisting of a Mach 2 nozzle, an isolator with flush-wall fuel injectors, a combustor with a cavity flameholder of height 9 mm and optical access, and an extender. Tests were conducted at total temperature 1200 K, total pressure 300 kPa, equivalence ratio near 0.4 in the combustor, and Mach number near 0.6 in the combustor. A frequency-doubled Nd:YAG laser pumped a dye laser, which produced light at 283.55 nm. The beam was shaped into a light sheet with full width half-maximum 25 microns, which illuminated a streamwise plane that bisected the cavity. An intensified camera system imaged OH in this plane with a square 6.67 mm field of view and in-plane resolution 39 microns. Images were taken between the backward-facing step and 120 mm downstream of the step. OH structures as small as 110 microns were observed. CH2O was excited using 352.48 nm light; the smallest observed CH2O structures were approximately 200 microns wide. Approximately 15,000 images per species were processed and used to compute composite images.