QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE FLOW VISUALIZATION TECHNIQUE USING OZONE

We have developed a new flow-visualization technique based on the absorption of ultraviolet light by ozone. Ozone is an excellent tracer, because as a gas it has the same effective physical properties as air. Ozone strongly absorbs the principal line (253.7 nm) of a mercury lamp, ε = 310 (atm cm)-1, where I/Io=exp(-εcl) such that when an ozone-traced flow passes between a mercury lamp and a fluorescent screen, a sharp, shadow-like image of the ozone tracer is cast on the screen. Quantitative photometry can be carried out by replacing the screen with ultraviolet detectors that yield the path-integrated column density of ozone in the flow. High-speed quantitative point monitoring (10 Hz at 10 ppb O3) is possible with capillary probes and chemiluminescent analysis.