Measurement on gas temperature distribution by tunable diode laser absorption Spectroscopy

The technique of tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS) can be used for gas temperature distribution measurement by scanning multiple gas absorption lines with a tunable diode laser. The fundamental of gas temperature distribution measurement by TDLAS is introduced in the present paper, and the discretization strategy of equation for gas absorption is also given here. Using constrained linear least-square fitting method, the gas temperature distribution can be calculated with the help of physical constraints under the condition of uniform gas concentration and pressure. Based on the spectral parameters of four CO absorption lines near 6 330 cm(-1) from HITRAN database, the model of two-temperature distribution at 300 and 600 K with each path length of 55 cm was set up. The effects of relative measurement error and different path length constraints of temperature bins on the gas temperature distribution measurement results were simulated by constrained linear least-square fitting. The results show that the temperature distribution calculation error increases as the relative measurement error rises. A measurement error of 5% could lead to a maximum relative error of 11%, and an average relative error of 2.2% for calculation result. And the weak physical constraints of path length for temperature bins could increase the calculation result error during the process of constrained linear least-square fitting. By setting up the model of two-temperature distribution with gas cells at room temperature as the cold section and in tube furnace as the hot section, the experiment of gas temperature distribution measurement in lab was carried out. Using four absorption lines of CO near 6 330 cm(-1) scanned by VCSEL diode laser, and fitting the background laser intensity without absorption by the cubic polynomial to get the baseline signal, the integrals of spectral absorbance for gas temperature distribution measurement can be calculated. The relative calculation errors of path length for temperature bins are about 7.3%, 6.5%, 4.7% and 2.7% in the four cases.