Measurement of gas-phase temperatures in flames

with a point-diffraction interferometer

Jeffrey S. Goldmeer, David L. Urban, and Zeng-guang Yuan

Experiments were performed to evaluate the performance of a point-diffraction interferometry PDI

system to measure gas-phase temperatures in flames. PDI is an interferometric technique that creates
the reference beam after the laser beam passes through the test section and directly provides the index
of refraction in two dimensions. PDI-based temperature measurements were compared with thermo-
couple measurements of two-dimensional and axisymmetric thermal boundary layers, as well as two-
dimensional and axisymmetric diffusion flames. The PDI system provided excellent agreement in the
measurement of thermal profiles in the boundary layers and was within the uncertainties that are due
to the radiation corrections for the thermocouple-based flame temperature measurements. 2001
Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: 120.3180, 120.1740, 120.6780.

1. Introduction two-dimensional density profile. In situations in

Point-diffraction interferometry PDI is a novel tech-
nique that can easily be used to measure changes in
the index of refraction. The unique difference with
PDI, in contrast with conventional interferometry, is
that the reference beam is generated after the test
section, enabling PDI to be self-referencing, inher-
ently stable, and relatively insensitive to vibration.
In addition, single or common path systems require
fewer optical elements, making PDI readily adapt-
able for use in a variety of laboratory environments
and configurations.
PDI offers numerous advantages over other non-
invasive techniques. It is substantially simpler to
implement than spectroscopic systems coherent
anti-Stokes Raman scattering and planer laser-
induced fluorescence; and, unlike schlieren, which
provides gradients in one dimension, PDI yields two-
dimensional fringes that can be used to compute a
which the pressure field is known, PDI can directly
provide a two-dimensional temperature profile by use
of simple and linear computations. These applica-
tions include thermal boundary layers as well as sta-
tionary and spreading flames.
Initially, PDI was developed to diagnose telescope-
based optical systems.1,2 PDI systems have been
used to examine thermal boundary layers,3 thermal
profiles in heated liquids,4 and droplet combustion.5
However, these were qualitative studies. In this pa-
per we provide quantitative data to validate the per-
formance of a point-diffraction interferometer.
Temperature profiles for two-dimensional and axi-
symmetric boundary layers are measured and com-
pared with thermocouple measurements and
published analytical solutions. In addition, PDI and
radiation-corrected thermocouple temperature mea-
surements of two diffusion flame geometries are com-
pared.

When this research was performed, J. S. Goldmeer and D. L.

Urban were with the NASA Glenn Research Center and Z.-G.
Yuan was with the National Center for Microgravity Research at
the NASA Glenn Research Center, 21000 Brookpark Road, Cleve-
land, Ohio 44135. J. Goldmeer goldmeer@alum.wpi.edu is now
with the General Electric Corporate Research and Development
Center, P.O. Box 8, K-1, Engineering Systems Building, Sche-
nectady, New York 12301.
Received 2 October 2000; revised manuscript received 21 May
2001.
0003-693501274816-08$15.000
2001 Optical Society of America
2. Theory
In two-beam interferometers, a pair of coherent, col-
limated light beams originally from the same source
are recombined to create an interference pattern.
Changes in the optical path of one of the light beams
shift the phase of that beam with respect to the other,
producing the interference pattern on an imaging
plane.6 In the interference pattern, the change in
the optical path length can be related to the prod-
uct of the light wavelength and the interference

4816 APPLIED OPTICS Vol. 40, No. 27 20 September 2001


Fig. 1. PDI coordinate systems P is the intensity in the projec-
tion plane.
order N, as well as to the change in the index of
refraction in the direction of the light beam:
N n 0 ndz, (1)
in which n0 is the reference index of refraction, with
z being the laser beam path direction. The interfer-
ence order N is also known as the fringe number or
the phase difference.7 The PDI system can be used
for measurements in either a two-dimensional or an
axisymmetric configuration; the coordinate systems
for these geometries are shown in Fig. 1.
For a two-dimensional object, where the index of
refraction is not a function of z, the change in the
index of refraction can be related to the interference
order by use of Eq. 1. For an ideal gas the index of
refraction is approximately unity and can be com-
puted with the GladstoneDale equation, which re-
lates the index of refraction n with density and
refractivity K6,8,9:
n1
K.
The refractivity is also known as the GladstoneDale
constant.9 This term is a function of gas properties
and has a slight wavelength dependence; from 0.4 to
2.0 m the refractivity of air decreases from 2.34
104 to 2.24 104. Combining Eqs. 1 and 2
with the ideal gas law and solving for temperature,
we obtain
1
1
N x, yR
T x, y , (3)
T 0 K MPL
in which L is the optical path length over which the
change in the index of refraction occurs, M is the gas
molecular weight, P and T are the gas-phase pressure
and temperature, R is the universal gas constant, and
T0 is the reference temperature. To determine the
temperature associated with each fringe, the fringes
must be ordered. Dark fringes are regions of de-
structive interference and are numbered with odd
multiples of 0.5 N 0.5, 1.5, 2.5, etc.; light fringes
are regions of constructive interference and are num-
bered with even multiples of 0.5 N 1, 2, 3, etc.. A
fringe number of zero N 0 corresponds to the
reference or ambient temperature T0. Fringe
numbers can be either positive or negative, depend-
ing on the selected convention for the change in the
index of refraction. According to the convention as-
sumed in Eq. 3, increases in temperature reduce the
index of refraction, and the fringe numbers N will be
positive. It is important to note that a reference
temperature T0, N 0 is required for an absolute
temperature measurement. Otherwise, this tech-
nique provides a relative measure of the temperature
change from fringe to fringe.
In an axisymmetric geometry, the index of refrac-
tion changes in the z axis along the beam path as
shown in Fig. 1. The fringe image is in the projec-
tion, which must be transformed into the axisymmet-
ric domain to compute temperature. In the
axisymmetric system, the fringe images are related
to the radial coordinate r through the projected dis-
tance l. The equation for the change in the optical
path length can be rewritten for the axisymmetric
coordinate system when we use the substitution8
rdr
dz . (4)
r l 2 12
2
Substituting this into the equation for the change in
phase and solving for the change in the index of re-
fraction yield
1
nr n 0 nr dl, (5)
r
l r 2 12
2
in which l is the derivative of with respect to
l . Equation 5, known as the Abel transform,
gives the relationship between the derivative of the
change in phase in the projection plane and the index
(2)
of refraction in the axisymmetric coordinate system.8
The Abel transform and other methods for transform-
ing the data in the projected plane to the axisymmet-
ric domain are discussed in Yuan10 and Dasch.11
Once Eq. 5 is evaluated, we can compute the radial
temperature profile using Eq. 2:
1
1 nrR
Tr . (6)
T 0 K MP
Again, it is important to note that a reference tem-
perature T0, N 0 is required for an absolute tem-
perature measurement. To perform the Abel
transform correctly, the centerline and at least one
edge of the thermal field must be within the field of
view of the CCD camera. Otherwise, the Abel trans-
form does not have enough information to compute
the radial profiles correctly. Thus, in the experi-
ments reported in this paper, alignment of the flame
with respect to the centerline of the collimated laser
beam is not necessary, as long as the centerline and
an edge of the flame thermal field are within the
field of view.
20 September 2001 Vol. 40, No. 27 APPLIED OPTICS 4817
Fig. 2. Schematic of the PDI system showing the interferogram of
a candle placed in the test section.
3. Experimental Hardware
The experimental hardware consists of three sub-
systems. First is the PDI, common to all the exper-
iments reported in this paper. Second is the
experiment-specific configuration: thermal bound-
ary layer versus diffusion flame and two-dimensional
versus axisymmetric. The third subsystem consists
of the thermocouples used for comparison with the
PDI measurements.
The PDI system consists of a light source laser,
two lenses, and a diffraction disk. Interferograms
formed by this system can be viewed on a screen or
captured by a CCD camera. A point light source is
created with a 200-nm optical fiber connected to a
0.9-mW laser diode 635 nm. The diverging
laser beam is collimated into an 8-cm-diameter beam
by an achromatic lens 0.31-m focal length, passes
through the test section, and is focused on a PDI disk
also known as Smartt Interferometer, manufactured
by Coherent, Inc. by a second achromatic lens Fig.
2. The interference pattern is imaged with an 80
200-mm f4 lens mounted to a black-and-white CCD
camera. We used the zoom lens to increase mea-
surement resolution by zooming in on a particular
region within the fringe pattern. A color CCD cam-
era is used with a mirror to capture flame images; the
mirror is placed between the achromatic lenses not
shown in Fig. 2. This system uses commercially
available hardware.
The PDI disk consists of a circular diffraction hole
centered in a semiabsorbing thin film. This disk is
placed at the focal point of the decollimating lens
Fig. 2. A portion of the beam passes through the
film with some attenuation but is otherwise un-
changed. Light passing through the center pinhole,
which has a diameter of the order of a few microme-
ters,2 creates a spherical diffraction wave that acts as
the reference beam Fig. 3. The PDI technique is
unusual as it creates the reference beam after the test
section. The interference pattern generated when
the test and reference beams interact interferogram
is a series of concentric rings that can be viewed on a
screen or with a video camera.
There are two fringe modes generated by this sys-
tem: finite and infinite. Both images are shown for
a case with a uniform temperature field 300 K in
Fig. 4. Using the finite fringe mode for measure-
ments requires reference and test images; the shift in
the fringes between the images is used to determine
4818 APPLIED OPTICS Vol. 40, No. 27 20 September 2001
Fig. 3. Effect of the PDI disk on the incident wave front.1 The
outer beam on the imaging side of the PDI disk is the diffracted
wave front. The interaction of the transmitted test wave front
and the diffracted reference wave front creates the fringe pattern
see Fig. 4.
the change in the index of refraction. In the infinite
fringe mode, the system captures the region that is
within the innermost fringe, which is accomplished
when we translate the PDI disk with respect to the
focal point of the laser beam. Because there are no
fringes in the region being viewed, any fringes that
occur during an experiment are lines of constant op-
tical path length. If the index of refraction varies
only in a plane perpendicular to the beam, the fringes
are also contours of constant index of refraction.6 If
the phenomenon being examined is an ideal gas at
constant pressure with a constant gas composition,
the fringes are identically isotherms. The interfero-
grams from the experiments described in this paper
were taken in the infinite fringe mode. Scale images
were recorded to determine the spatial scale in the
interferograms.
The peak-to-trough variation of the fringes gener-
ated by this system is adequate for the types of mea-
surement carried out in this paper. The visibility of
the fringes is related to the amount of power that can
be applied to the reference beam, i.e., the width of the
beam in the focal plane of the decollimating lens with
respect to the size of the pinhole. The experiments
reported in this paper use a commercial instrument,
which uses a single beam, limiting the ability to
change the reference beam independent of the test
beam. However, one could use separate compo-
nents, as demonstrated by Bachalo and Houser,3 that
split the test beam into two separate beams after
passing through the test section. This allows the
diffraction disk, and hence the reference beam, to be
adjusted independent of the test beam. However, a
trade-off exists between simplicity and image quality.
The Bachalo and Houser3 system could be used to
adjust the intensity of the fringes, but it is optically
more complex than the system described in this pa-
per; the test beam is split and then the test and
reference beams must be recombined before imaging.
An additional advantage of this system is that mul-
tiple images can be processed to overcome weak
fringe visibility in steady-state phenomena.
Temperature profiles were measured in thermal
boundary layers and diffusion flames in both two-
Fig. 4. Comparison of a finite fringe and b infinite fringe modes. The experiments reported in this paper were performed in the
infinite fringe mode.
dimensional and axisymmetric geometries. We gen-
erated the thermal boundary layers using a vertical
flat plate and cylinder that we heated using internal
cartridge heaters. We controlled the heaters using a
proportional, integral, and differential controller to
generate constant surface temperatures. The plate
was 5 cm wide, and the cylinder had a diameter of 2.5
cm. In addition to the PDI measurements, temper-
atures were measured with a 10-mil- 2.54 104 m
diameter, type K thermocouple connected to a PC-
based data-acquisition system. The thermocouple
data have a maximum uncertainty of 0.75% of the
measured value; this corresponds to an uncertainty of
5 K at a temperature of 650 K. All the experi-
ments were performed in air at 1 atm. In all the
tests, the temperature was measured just beyond the
first dark fringe to provide the reference temperature
T0, N 0.
We produced the two-dimensional flame using
methanol CH3OH evaporating from a vertical board
of porous ceramic material 5.1 cm wide 10.2 cm
tall 0.32 cm deep supported in an aluminum
frame. We applied 10 ml of methanol to the lower
half of the board prior to each test. The porous solid
acted as a wick, allowing the methanol to evaporate
into the gas phase. This setup was similar to the
one described by Ang et al.12 A dilute methane lam-
inar gas jet diffusion flame was used for the axisym-
metric case. The gas mixture 50% CH4 and 50%
N2 produced a blue, nonsooting flame at a pressure
of 1 atm; the nozzle diameter was 0.0026 m with a
flow of 100 standard cubic centimeters per minute at
STP SCCM, yielding a cold Reynolds number of 52.
The tests were performed with air as the oxidizer at
a pressure of 1 atm.
In both of the flame geometries, PDI measure-
ments were compared with the temperature data ac-
quired with a 3-mil- 7.6 105 m diameter, type S
thermocouple positive lead: 10% rhodium, 90% plat-
inum; negative lead: platinum with a measurement
uncertainty of 0.25% K, corresponding to an uncer-
tainty of 5 K at a temperature of 1800 K. We
corrected the thermocouple data for these tests for
radiative losses using the method described by Ang et
al.12 and Shaddix,13 which balances thermal radia-
tion losses with the convective heat flux to the ther-
mocouple bead. In the two-dimensional case, the
thermocouple bead was centered horizontally on the
sample and at a distance of 0.9 cm from the leading
edge of the aluminum frame 0.25 cm from the lead-
ing edge of the ceramic. The thermocouple was in-
serted along an isotherm to limit heat conduction
losses. In addition, the thermocouple wire was
much longer than the bead diameter ld 200,
which tends to limit heat conduction losses.13 As in
the boundary layer tests, the thermocouple was used
to measure the reference temperature T0.
4. Experimental Results
In each of the above-described geometries, interfero-
grams and thermocouple data were obtained. The
interferograms were analyzed to determine the tem-
perature profiles and to compare them with thermo-
couple temperature profiles and analytical profiles
for the thermal boundary layer cases.
A. Two-Dimensional Vertical Boundary Layer
An interferogram generated from this thermal
boundary layer with ordered fringes is shown in Fig.
5. The vertical midpoint in the figure, 0.09 m from
the leading edge, is the location of the measured tem-
perature profiles. We determined the centers of the
fringes by examining a line profile of the fringe in-
tensities. The fringe numbers were used in Eq. 3
to compute the temperature profile, which is plotted
with the thermocouple data and the theoretical tem-
perature profile as a function of distance from the
surface of the plate in Fig. 6. The error bars on the
20 September 2001 Vol. 40, No. 27 APPLIED OPTICS 4819
Fig. 5. Fringes generated by a heated vertical flat plate with dark
destructive fringe-order numbers. The heated plate surface
temperature is 600 K.
Fig. 7. Fringes generated by a heated vertical circular cylinder
with dark fringe-order numbers. The cylinder surface temper-
ature is 650 K.
PDI data represent the width of the fringes; the
fringe temperature is assumed to be at the location of
minimum fringe intensity. The PDI temperatures
are within 3% of the thermocouple data and the the- Fig. 9. The data are fitted with a fourth-order poly-
oretical solution. The theoretical prediction is based nomial function that is then used in Eq. 5 to solve
on the research of Ostrach,14 which is listed by for nr. The temperature profiles, both experimen-
White.15 The path length used in these calculations tal and theoretical as a function of distance from the
included the width of the flat plate and the thermal surface of the cylinder, are shown in Fig. 10. The
boundary layer thickness at the edges of the alumi- PDI data are within 4% of the thermocouple data,
num plate in the beam direction. and the PDI profile deviated from the analytical so-
lution by a maximum of 4.6%. The analytical solu-
B. Axisymmetric Boundary Layer
The interferogram for this configuration is shown in
Fig. 7. The vertical midpoint of the image is 0.076
m from the bottom of the cylinder. The path length
is smaller in the axisymmetric case, so there are
fewer fringes in the axisymmetric case as compared
with the two-dimensional case. To analyze the PDI
image, the fringe patterns were recorded digitally
with a frame grabber. We determined the locations
of maximum and minimum intensity by examining
the average line profile of four successive images Fig.
8. The change in the optical path length, defined in
Eq. 1, is a function of l and is determined from the
locations of the maximum and minimum intensities
Fig. 8. Line intensity profiles of the fringes generated by a heated
vertical circular cylinder by use of the fringes from Fig. 7.

Fig. 6. Comparison of experimental and theoretical temperature

profiles generated by the heated vertical flat plate in Fig. 5. The
error bars on the interferometry data represent the width of each
fringe from Fig. 5; the fringe temperature is assumed to be at the Fig. 9. Change in the optical path length versus distance from the
location of minimum fringe intensity. center of the cylinder by use of the fringe locations from Fig. 8.

4820 APPLIED OPTICS Vol. 40, No. 27 20 September 2001


Fig. 10. Comparison of the experimental and theoretical temper-
ature profiles for the heated vertical cylinder in Fig. 7.
tion plotted in Fig. 10 is based on the solution for a
vertical cylinder presented by Ostrach,16 modified for
the given experimental parameters.
C. Two-Dimensional Flame
A comparison of the flame interferogram with a vis-
ible flame image is shown in Fig. 11. Note that the
closed fringes those that do not end at the wall, but
appear to loop around appear at the same location as
the visible flame. Figure 12 is a comparison of the
PDI and thermocouple temperature profiles. The
error bars on the PDI data represent the width of the
fringes; the center of the fringe was assumed to be the
location of the fringe temperature. Each thermocou-
ple data point is the average of 10 s of data collected
at a frequency of 10 Hz. At the peak temperature,
the thermocouple and PDI profiles vary by less than
2%. When the refractivity for air is used, the PDI
and thermocouple data differ by 20% at the wall. As
described above, the thermocouple data were cor-
rected for radiation losses. There is an uncertainty
in the thermocouple radiation correction associated
with the required Nusselt number correlation.
Shaddix13 lists five potential Nusselt number corre-
lations. Depending on the correlation used, the
radiation-corrected temperature varies by as much as
Fig. 11. a Fringe image, b visible flame image, and c com- in the temperature data at small radial distances.
bined visible flame and fringe images for a two-dimensional meth-
anol flame. The bright white region in image c is the visible
blue flame.
Fig. 12. Comparison of PDI and thermocouple temperature pro-
files for the two-dimensional methanol flame in Fig. 11. The error
bars on the interferometry data represent the width of each fringe
from Fig. 11; the fringe temperature is assumed to be at the
center of each fringe.
300 400 K. In this paper we used the correlation of
Kramers.17
We calculated the flame temperatures using gas
properties for air; no information regarding fuel com-
position was used. The thermocouple and PDI tem-
perature profiles are well matched, except near the
wall and the outer edge of the system. The differ-
ence between the PDI and the thermocouple temper-
atures at the wall could have occurred for one of two
reasons. First, the PDI system was measuring the
gas-phase temperature next to the wall, whereas the
thermocouple could have been influenced by the wall.
Second, the assumption of constant gas properties
M, K does not hold near the wall. This effect is
examined in Section 4.
D. Axisymmetric Flame
The interferogram of the axisymmetric flame and the
visible flame image are compared in Fig. 13. The
Abel transform described above was applied to this
case. The resulting thermal profile is compared
with the radiation-corrected thermocouple data in
Fig. 14. The peak temperatures differ by less than
3%. The agreement between the PDI and the ther-
mocouple data is good in the region with a larger
number of fringes r 4 mm and is poor in the region
near the centerline with little or no fringes r 4
mm. This occurs because, at small radial distances,
the function used to model the change in the optical
path length is not highly constrained because of the
reduced fringe spacing. Because the Abel transform
uses the gradient of the change in the optical path
length, small changes in the gradient resulting from
changes in the optical path length function can result
in large variations in the temperature profile. Thus
the reduced number of fringes causes poor agreement
The error bars on the thermocouple data 0.00025
m are due to the uncertainty in the exact position of
the tip of the thermocouple probe.
20 September 2001 Vol. 40, No. 27 APPLIED OPTICS 4821

Fig. 13. Comparison of PDI and visible flame images for an axi-
symmetric methane gas jet diffusion flame nozzle diameter, 2.6
mm; flow rate, 100 SCCM; ReD 52.
5. Discussion
The PDI-measured temperature profiles of the ther-
mal boundary layer are in excellent agreement with
both the thermocouple and the analytical profiles.
However, the PDI measurements in the diffusion
flames show some of the limitations of this system.
Like other interferometers, a PDI system is limited
by both gas composition and line-of-sight effects.
The analysis used to determine temperatures in and
around the flames assumed a constant gas composi-
tion air throughout the test section. This assump-
tion is valid on the oxidizer side of the flame, as the
concentrations of fuel or combustion products are
small. Within the flame where there is a mixture of
fuel, combustion products and air, there are condi-
Fig. 14. Comparison of PDI and thermocouple temperature pro-
files for the axisymmetric methane flame in Fig. 13. The error
bars on the thermocouple data represent the uncertainty in the
position of the thermocouple.
4822 APPLIED OPTICS Vol. 40, No. 27 20 September 2001
tions under which the properties of air can be uti-
lized. For example, in the two-dimensional
methanol flame, the methanol fuel oxidizes into
smaller molecules, specifically carbon dioxide, carbon
monoxide, and water vapor, with much smaller con-
centrations of hydrogen and formaldehyde.18,19 The
molecular weight, index of refraction, and the
GladstoneDale constant for this oxidized fuelair
mixture M 25.98 ggmole, n 1.0002663, K
2.52 104 are similar to the values for air M
28.84 ggmole, n 1.0002663, K 2.27 104.
The maximum temperature computed from the PDI
data with the mixture properties is nearly the same
as the temperature based solely on the air property
data; consequently, use of air property data on the
outside of the methanol flame is a valid assumption.
In regions in which there is a large concentration of
fuel vapor, use of the values of the molecular weight,
index of refraction, and the GladstoneDale constant
for air will cause the computed temperature to vary
from the actual temperature. This would cause a
significant discrepancy between the actual and the
measured temperatures at the wall in the two-
dimensional flame case. Using the appropriate con-
stants for 100% methanol M 32 ggmole, n
1.0005092, K 3.91 104 instead of a value for air
yields a PDI temperature of 398 K at the wall, a
decrease of 180 K from the predicted temperature.
The revised temperature is closer to the boiling tem-
perature of methanol 337 K. A temperature near
the boiling point is expected because the liquid meth-
anol in the porous solid is heated and evaporates,
eventually diffusing toward the reaction zone. Thus
the methanol diffusing out of the porous ceramic
should be relatively close to the evaporation temper-
ature.
The effects of path length on the PDI measure-
ment are also important. As the path length de-
creases for small objects, the temperature
difference between fringes increases, decreasing
the number of fringes and reducing the accuracy of
the measurement. As the path length increases,
the fringe spacing decreases, imposing fringe reduc-
tion versus field-of-view limitations. As with all
line-of-sight measurements, the edge effects can
also be a significant source of error.
6. Conclusions
Use of PDI to measure temperatures has been vali-
dated. Temperatures measured with PDI in two-
dimensional and axisymmetric geometries have been
shown to be within the uncertainty of the thermocou-
ple radiation correction. Because of its unique de-
sign, PDI is compact, uses relatively few optical
components, and is simple to implement, making PDI
suitable for different types of measurement in a va-
riety of laboratory situations.
The authors thank Nasser Rashidnia of the Na-
tional Center for Microgravity Research for his assis-
tance in transferring this technique to combustion
applications. Financial support for J. S. Goldmeer
was provided by the National Research Council and
by the Microgravity Combustion Science Branch of
the NASA Glenn Research Center.
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