THE APPLICATIONS OF LASER RAYLEIGH-SCATTERING TO COMBUSTION DIAGNOSTICS

A lot of laser-based nonintrusive techniques have been developed for c ombustion diagnostics in the past few years. Among them, laser Rayleig h scattering (LRS) has received increased attention in studying turbul ent combustion due to its many valuable characteristics. This paper at tempts to review and discuss the current status of the applications of this technique to combustion diagnostics. The fundamentals of Rayleig h scattering, its characteristics and application principles are first discussed. Then, several application considerations, for example the configuration of the diagnostic system, problems, uncertainties and so on, associated with the measurements are presented for a general desc ription of this technique. The final portion is devoted to discussing its applications to the measurements of concentration, density, temper ature and flame thickness, and combined measurements with other techni ques either in free jets, boundary layers, confined vessels and recipr ocating engines to show the availabilities of Rayleigh scattering and the key points in its applications to combustion diagnostics.