Quasi-simultaneous detection of CH[sub 2] O and CH by cavity ring-down absorption and laser-induced fluorescence in a methane/air low-pressure flame.

The combination of two-dimensional, planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) and cavity ring-down (CRD) absorption spectroscopy is applied to map quantitatively the spatial distributions of CH[sub 2] O and CH in a methane/air flame at 25 Torr. Both species are detected in the same spectral region using the overlapping CH[sub 2] O A [sup 1] A[sub 2] -X [sup 1] A[sub 1] 4[sub 1] [sup 0] and CH B-X(1,0 )bands. The combination of diagnostic techniques exploits the spatial resolution of LIF and the quantitative CRD absorption measure of column density. The spatially resolved PLIF provides the distribution of absorbers and line-of-sight CRD absorption the absolute number density needed for quantitative concentration images. The peak CH[sub 2] O concentration is (3.5±1.4 )×10[sup 14] cm[sup -3] , or 1450±550 ppm at 1000 K. The lack of precise absorption cross-section data produces these large error limits. Although a flame model predicts lower amounts, these large uncertainties limit this measurement’susefulness as a test of the flame chemistry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]