title: Spontaneous anti-Stokes Raman probe for gas temperature measurements in industrial furnaces.
abstract: A compact, pulsed Nd:YAG laser-based instrument has been built to measure in situ absolute gas temperatures in large industrial furnaces by use of spontaneous anti-Stokes Raman scattering. The backscattering configuration was used to simplify the optics alignment and increase signal-to-noise ratios. Gated signal detection significantly reduced the background emission that is found in combustion environments. The anti-Stokes instead of the Stokes component was used to eliminate contributions to spectra from cold atmospheric nitrogen. The system was evaluated in a methane/air flame and in a bench-top oven, and the technique was found to be a reliable tool for nonintrusive absolute temperature measurements with relatively clean gas streams. A water-cooled insertion probe was integrated with the Raman system for measurement of the temperature profiles inside an industrial furnace. Gas temperatures near 1500-1800 K at atmospheric pressure in an industrial furnace were inferred by fitting calculated profiles to experimental spectra with a standard deviation of less than 1% for averaging times of approximately 200 s. The temperatures inferred from Raman spectra are in good agreement with data recorded with a thermocouple probe.
authors.affiliation: Diagnostic Instrumentation and Analysis Laboratory, Mississippi State University, 205 Research Boulevard, Research and Technology Park, Starkville, Mississippi 39759-9734, USA.
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Zikratov
authors.forename: F Y
authors.initials: FY
authors.lastname: Yueh
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.forename: O P
authors.initials: OP
authors.lastname: Norton
authors.forename: R A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: R L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Cook