The Combustion and Gas Dynamics Laboratory is housed in the Mechanical Engineering Department in the Engineering II building. A variety of experiments have been in progress in this laboratory including: dynamics of buoyant flames and non-reacting plumes, two phase turbulent flows, supersonic mixing and reactions including detonations, optical diagnostics of a variety of flows for temperature, species composition and velocity. For synopses of the current research projects please click here. State-of-the-art laser diagnostics include: Rayleigh scattering, laser induced fluorescence, phase Doppler anemometry, laser Doppler anemometry and particle image velocimetry as well as high speed photography and detection. These laboratories are well-equipped with CW (2 Ar+ lasers) and pulsed (2 Nd-YAG lasers) lasers, a dye laser system with frequency doubling optics, image intensified and high spatial resolution cooled CCD cameras, an ultra-high speed electronic framing/streak camera capable of framing at 2 x 106 frames/s, 0.5 m. spectrometer, photomultiplier light detection systems, a two component fiber-optic coupled phase Doppler particle anemometer (Aerometrics), a laser Doppler anemometer (TSI), digital oscilloscopes and latest data acquisition and image analysis computer systems. Those who are interested in a tour of these research facilities should contact Prof. Baki Cetegen at (860) 486-2966.
Some Views of the Combustion and Gas Dynamics Laboratory
High Speed Combustion Facility
One wing of the Combustion and Gas Dynamics laboratory is currently being renovated to house the high speed combustion facility schematically shown below. This facility has an air mass flow capacity of 0.1 kg/s which can be preheated to temperatures up to 600oC. The test section could be either circular or rectangular cross section with a typical dimension of 4.0 cm. The combustion process can be configured to take place either in diffusion or premixed modes. The preheated air inlet velocities up to 30 m/s can be achieved in the facility. Custom built test sections with optical windows allow optical diagnostics of combustion process including, laser Doppler and phase Doppler anemometry, particle image velocimetry, laser induced fluorescence as well as Mie, Rayleigh and Raman scattering. Combustion laboratory is equipped with instrumentation enabling these measurements.