ABSTRACT Proposal Number: CTS-9870993 Principal Investigator: W. Lempert, M. Samimy Funds are awarded to develop a high speed diagnostic imaging system which will provide the capability to study the dynamic behavior of time evolving and three dimensional flow fields. The instrumentation will consist of a high power solid state "burst mode" laser and a companion digital CCD framing camera. The laser system will be tunable in the mid-infrared, visible, and ultraviolet region of the spectrum and will be capable of generating pulses with a minimum interpulse period of 1 microsecond. The system will be used to study the influence of streamwise vorticity on acoustic noise suppression, physics of large scale mixing in complex, three dimensional flows, anomalous shock wave propagation and dispersion in weakly ionized plasma, and the creation and sustaining of atmospheric pressure volumetric plasmas. The system will also be incorporated into a two quarter electromagnetics laboratory sequence, "Atoms, molecules, electromagnetics, and information."
