Description: NASA SBIR 2024 Phase I Solicitation A2.08 called for spatially and temporally resolved diagnostics for NASA high-speed wind tunnel flows (supersonic, hypersonic), both with and without combustion. Improved measurement capabilities are needed for velocity, temperature, density, and/or species concentrations in harsh wind tunnel environments, from short-duration (~msec) to long-duration (~min) flow facilities. Measurement systems should be reliable and robust and preferably would be able to be implemented in multiple wind tunnel facilities and facility types including blowdown tunnels, combustion-heated tunnels, shock tubes, shock tunnels, and arc jets. Planar or volumetric, spatially resolved measurements are preferred. The ability to measure multiple parameters simultaneously is desirable. Measurement systems should be validated against accepted standards (thermocouples, calibration flames, etc.) to determine measurement accuracy and precision. We propose a well-developed method of obtaining gas parameters velocity, temperature, and composition measurements with the possibility of extension to simultaneous pressure measurements in high-speed flows using laser absorption spectroscopy (LAS) techniques. This will enable deployment of the method in large-scale ground test facilities, including short duration facilities with both reacting and non-reacting flows. We will leverage our current capabilities such as our absorption spectroscopy diagnostics systems with a demonstrated capability of 100+ kHz in situ temperature and species concentration measurements for gas temperatures 300 - 4000+ K and gas pressures 1 - 150 bar to facilitate the development of an improved sensor system that can achieve the needs of multiple NASA facilities.

Benefits: The proposed research effort will provide new instrumentation capabilities and methodologies, together with a convenient and user-friendly software package for the high-speed flow thermometry, concentration and velocimetry measurement. Potential NASA users include scientists and engineers from several large ground test facilities at various NASA research centers, including the 8-ft high-temperature tunnel, 31 Mach 10 tunnel, National Transonic Wind Tunnel, 0.3-m TCT, Unitary Wind Tunnel, HYMETS Arc-jet, and Hypersonic Scramjet.Outside of research interest from NASA ground test facilities, the system could also be applied in various large test facilities in many universities, research institutes, and aviation companies for accurate flow measurements in many R&D areas, such as gas turbine engines, hypersonic scramjets, hypersonic vehicles, aerospace capsules, and unmanned flights. All of these areas are important to national security and defense. The potential customers could be from research facilities in DoD, DARPA, DOE and other Government agencies. The other potential market includes industrial aeronautical companies, such as Boeing, Lockheed Martin, GE, Pratt&Whitney, Raytheon, and other industrial aerospace interests.