Strategically, the Helmholtz-University Young Investigators Group fills an - up to know - unoccupied “market niche” in the area of turbomachinery research. The measurement techniques the group is focusing on are envisioned for applications where until today no routinely used techniques exist. Should the group succeed with the development of these tools, the measurement methods will therefore be without any competition.
In spite of the innovative character of the tasks planned, it is considered important that these techniques have the potential to be developed into a useable measurement device in the given time span of five years. On the background of permanently diminishing resources for research it is thought to be important that all techniques have strong potential of being applied in industrial research as well.
Therefore, the measurement techniques chosen are not yet used in industrial experiments, but have already demonstrated their functional efficiency and are basically able to provide data urgently needed. Furthermore, because of the high public and economic interest in safe and environment-friendly propulsion and energy production, optical measurements in turbomachinery will stay in the focus of research and development for some time to come.
In detail, the development of the following diagnostic devices is planned:
Measurement Technique
Physical quantity
Intended field of application
Transient Grating Spectroscopy (TGS)
Temperature
Compressors, turbines, wind tunnels
Filtered Rayleigh Scattering (FRS)
Density
Thermal flow in combustion chambers
Fibre Optic Microphones (FOM)
Sound
Acoustic of combustion chambers
The scientific goal of the Helmholtz-University Young Investigators Group is to analyse and to develop these techniques and, further, to apply them to the tasks described above. The final measurement set-up for each of the above techniques will result in building a functional prototype that will be tested in the test rigs of the Hermann-Föttinger-Institute and the DLR.
Furthermore, the prototypes should also be tested at external measurement tasks in the industry. If the developed techniques prove to be useful, the transfer of the technologies to companies selling measurement systems is planned. Contacts to potential industrial partners already exist. The strategy to develop three measurement techniques at the same time, all serving similar but not identical purposes, minimises the risk of failure.