COLLISIONAL QUENCHING CORRECTIONS FOR LASER-INDUCED FLUORESCENCE MEASUREMENTS OF NO A2-SIGMA+

Quantitative combustion diagnostics using laser-induced fluorescence require a knowledge of energy transfer and quenching rates at elevated temperatures. Such information is critical both for experimental design and for subsequent reduction of measured signals to measurements of temperature and species concentrations. We present the results of a study of electronic energy transfer in NO A2SIGMA+. These results are cast in the form of empirical correlations which have been developed to facilitate the practical applications of quenching corrections. The choice of particular functional forms for these correlations is based on a classical collisional model of the process. This model has been calibrated against an extensive set of measured cross sections. Results are presented for a number of species of interest in combustion and aerothermodynamic applications.