LED-induced fluorescence diagnostics for turbine and combustion engine thermometry

Fluorescence from phosphor coatings is the basis of an established technique for measuring temperature in a wide variety of turbine and combustion engine applications. Example surfaces include blades, vanes, combustors, intake valves, pistons, and rotors. Many situations that are remote and noncontact require the high intensity of a laser to illuminate the phosphor, especially if the surface is moving. Thermometric resolutions of 0.1 C are obtainable, and some laboratory versions of these systems have been calibrated against NIST standards to even higher precision. To improve the measurement signal-to-noise ratio, synchronous detection timing has been used to repeatedly interrogate the same blade in a high speed rotating turbine. High spatial resolution can be obtained by tightly focusing the interrogation beam in measurements of static surfaces, and by precise differential timing of the laser pulses on rotating surfaces. We report here the use of blue light emitting diodes (LEDs) as an illumination source for producing useable fluorescence from phosphors for temperature measurements. An LED can excite most of the same phosphors used to cover the temperature range from 8 to 1400 C. The advantages of using LEDs are obvious in terms of size, power requirements, space requirements and cost. There can also be advantages associated with very long operating lifetimes, wide range of available colors, and their broader emission bandwidths as compared to laser diodes. Temperature may be inferred either from phase or time-decay determinations.