2019 Physics/Theoretical Colloquium

 

Thursday, November 21th , 2019

3:45 – 4:45 p.m.

MSL Auditorium (TA-03, Bldg. 1698)

 

Refreshments at 3:15pm

 

Speaker:   Prof. Ronald K. Hanson

Stanford University 

 

“Shock Tube and Laser Sensor Research”

Abstract: 

 

An overview will be provided of research in two areas at Stanford: shock tube studies of chemistry and physics of gases, and laser-based sensor development and application.  Shock tube work on chemistry is focused on contributing fundamental information on chemical reaction mechanisms and elementary reaction rate constants, mostly associated with combustion and propulsion (at temperatures of 600-3000K) but also with non-equilibrium processes in high-temperature air (up to 10000K) related to hypersonic flows.  Shock tube work on spectroscopy seeks to determine fundamental spectroscopic properties of absorption in high-temperature gases by combining shock wave heating with various fixed and rapid-scanning laser sources, allowing direct determination of parameters such as absorption cross-sections of molecular species, line strengths and line shape parameters, all as a function of temperature and pressure.  Work on laser-based sensing is based on two sensing concepts:  absorption and laser-induced fluorescence.  This research, largely based on the use of tunable infrared laser sources, is aimed at developing new sensing concepts, such as various forms of wavelength modulation absorption spectroscopy, and on applying these sensors to practical flow associated with advanced propulsion (such as scramjets, detonation engines), energy systems (gas turbines, coal gasifiers, IC engines), as well as atmospheric sensing (e.g. natural gas leaks, benzene monitoring).  The presentation will provide an overview of past and current research in these areas along with example results.

 

 If you would like to meet the speaker, please contact the speaker’s host: Dr. James Colgan, jcolgan@lanl.gov