The Combustion Diagnostics and  Environmental Measurements Laboratory

	Diagnostics for Microscale Combustion The energy density of hydrocarbon fuels is ~ 50 times higher than the best available batteries on a mass basis, and the shelf life of liquid fuels is indefinite.  These qualities make micro-scale combustion attractive for both civilian and military applications where portable energy sources are required, and where batteries are currently deployed.  Much effort is currently underway to develop small-scale combustors; many of these efforts would benefit from improved diagnostics, which are made difficult by both the small size of the reactors, and by material limitations. This novel effort, in conjunction with Prof. Chris Cadou at the University of Maryland, focuses on using infrared diagnostics to look through crystalline silicon walls, which are opaque in the visible region of the spectrum, but transparent in the infrared.  With an FTIR spectrometer we have been able to recover concentrations of fuel and product, as well as temperature, in a prototype micro-scale combustor. This project has been funded by the Minta Martin Foundation of the University of Maryland, the U.S. Navy, and the U.S. Air Force..		Recent publications / papers: Scott Heatwole's M.S. Thesis S. Heatwole, C.P. Cadou, and S.G. Buckley, “In situ Infrared Diagnostics in a Silicon-Walled Microscale Combustion Reactor: Initial Measurements,” in revision, Combustion Science and Technology. S. Heatwole, A. Venekatasan, S.G. Buckley, and C.P. Cadou, "In-situ diagnostic measurements in a micro-combustor," to be submitted, Combustion and Flame. Recent Results: Scott Heatwole's thesis defense