Review of Development and Comparison of Surface Thermometry Methods in Combustion Environments: Principles, Current State of the Art, and Applications

Abstract

Temperature is one of the most important parameters in the combustion processes. Accurate surface temperature can help to gain insight into the combustion characteristics of various solid or liquid fuels, as well as to evaluate the operating status of combustion power facilities such as internal combustion engines and gas turbines. This paper mainly summarizes and compares the main surface thermometry techniques, from the aspects of their principles, current state of development, and specific applications. These techniques are divided into two categories: contact-based thermometry and non-intrusive thermometry. In contact-based thermometry, conventional thermocouples as well as thin-film thermocouples are introduced. These methods have been developed for a long time and are simple and economical. However, such methods have disadvantages such as interference to flow and temperature field and poor dynamic performance. Furthermore, this paper reviews the latest non-intrusive thermometry methods, which have gained more interest in recent years, including radiation thermometry, laser-induced phosphorescence, liquid crystal thermography, the temperature-sensitive paint technique, and the temperature-indicating paint technique. Among them, we highlighted radiation thermometry, which has the widest measurement ranges and is easy to acquire results with spatial resolution, as well as laser-induced phosphorescence thermometry, which is not interfered with by the emissivity and surrounding environment, and has the advantages of fast response, high sensitivity, and small errors. Particularly, laser-induced phosphoresce has attracted a great deal of attention, as it gets rid of the influence of emissivity. In recent years, it has been widely used in the thermometry of various combustion devices and fuels. At the end of this paper, the research progress of the above-mentioned laser-induced phosphorescence and other techniques in recent years for the surface thermometry of various solid or liquid fuels is summarized, as well as applications of combustion facilities such as internal combustion engines, gas turbines, and aero engines, which reveal the great development potential of laser-induced phosphorescence technology in the field of surface thermometry.