title: Submicrosecond temperature measurement in liquid water with laser-induced thermal acoustics.
abstract: Using laser-induced thermal acoustics, we demonstrate nonintrusive and remote sound-speed and temperature measurements in liquid water. Unsteady thermal gradients in the water sample produce fast, random laser beam misalignments, which are the primary source of uncertainty in these measurements. For water temperatures over the range 10 degrees C to 45 degrees C, the precision of a single 300-ns-duration measurement varies from +/-1 to +/-16.5 m/s for sound speed and from +/-0.3 degrees C to +/-9.5 degrees C for temperature. Averaging over 10 s (100 laser pulses) yields accuracies of +/-0.64 m/s and +/-0.45 degrees C for sound speed and temperature, respectively.
authors.affiliation: NASA Langley Research Center, 18 Langley Boulevard, Mail Stop 493, Hampton, Virginia 23681-2199, USA. david.w.alderfer@nasa.gov
authors.forename: David W
authors.initials: DW
authors.lastname: Alderfer
authors.forename: G C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Herring
authors.forename: Paul M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Danehy
authors.forename: Toshiharu
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Mizukaki
authors.forename: Kazuyoshi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Takayama