Statistical Absorption Tomography for Turbulent Flows

En'Urga Inc. developed Statistical Absorption Tomography for Turbulent flows under a Phase I and Phase II SBIR grant from the National Science Foundation.  The key finding of the study was that it was possible to obtain local extinction coefficients resolved to 1/10th the integral length scale in high speed turbulent flows, with sufficient temporal resolution.  This was the first demonstration of statistical deconvolution techniques for obtaining spatially and temporally resolved structure information in turbulent flows. 

Tomographic techniques, which were once restricted exclusively to time-invariant phenomena (such as CATScan in the medical field), can now be applied to turbulent industrial flows.  Applications include patternation in spray nozzles, pollution control from smoke stacks, and process control in chemical industry. 

The SETScan patternator was developed and prototyped under this SBIR.  Commercial sale of the patternator has been initiated in 2003.  Further details of the project are provided in the following publications. 

Y. R. Sivathanu, J. M. Lim, and R. K. Joseph (2000), “Statistical Absorption Tomography for Turbulent Flows” J. Quant. Spec. & Rad. Trans., vol. 68, pp. 611-623.

J. Lim, Y. Sivathanu, V. Narayanan, and S. Chang, (2003), “Optical Patternation of a Water Spray Using Statistical Extinction Tomography,” Atomization and Sprays, vol. 13, pp. 27-43.

Jongmook Lim, Yudaya Sivathanu, and Paul Sojka, “Optical Patternation of a Multi-hole Fuel Spray Nozzle,” ICLASS, 2003.

Yudaya Sivathanu, Jongmook Lim, and Ye Mi, “Optical Patternation of a Diesel Engine Injector under Cold Conditions,” Proceedings of the 16th Annual Conference on Liquid Atomization and Spray Systems, Monterey, CA pp. , 2003.

J. Lim and Y. Sivathanu, (2002), “Tomographic Reconstruction of Spatial Correlation in a Turbulent Paint Spray,” Proceedings of the 2002 Painting Technology Workshop, Lexington, Kentucky.

Y. Sivathanu, J. Lim, V. Narayanan, and R. Joseph, (2001), ‘Fan Beam Emission Tomography for Transient Fires,’ Sixth International Microgravity Combustion Workshop NASA/CP-2001-210826, NASA Glenn Research Center, pp. 369-372.