Heterodyne background-oriented schlieren for the measurement of thermoacoustic oscillations in flames.

In aircraft engines, thermoacoustic oscillations in the combustion chamber contribute significantly to noise emissions, which, like all other emissions, must be drastically reduced. Thermoacoustic oscillations are not only a concern, they can also be beneficial in hydrogen combustion. This work demonstrates that thermoacoustic density oscillations with amplitudes at least an order of magnitude smaller than those resulting from density gradients in a turbulent flame can be detected using laser interferometric vibrometry.