Temperature measurements for a tabletop high-speed plasma tunnel using its emitted light

What is it about?

Temperature measurements of a high-speed argon plasma have been obtained by processing the light emissions coming from the excited plasma as it traveled through the transparent nozzle. Two tabletop-scale high-speed plasma tunnels were assigned to have four different input configurations where for each condition, the temperature corresponding to the light emitted was evaluated at different distances along the plasma flow and compared.

Featured Image

Photo by John Doyle on Unsplash

Photo by John Doyle on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This technique of optical emission spectroscopy unlocks a vital way to obtain qualitative and quantitative plasma and flow properties for the tunnels at CU-MAPLAB without perturbing the volatile flow itself. Defining these properties along the length of these plasma tunnels for different input conditions is crucial because these tunnels will serve as stable test environments for future technological experiments that utilize the plasma formed around high-speed aerospace vehicles.