Stereo imaging and analysis of combustion process in a gas turbine combustor

Quantitative digital 3D information extraction from a stereo imaging pair of a semi-transparent flame has been attempted in this paper. A semi-automatic image matching methodology has been adopted to overcome the very challenging problem of non-unique matching of semi-transparent flame. It is shown that the tracking of flame features in relation to the 3D position to the combustor wall surface is possible by combining optical 3D visualization and digital image reconstruction. Useful statistics can be obtained. 3D particle tracking has also been demonstrated. The complex 3D trajectory of a residual particle near one of the dilution holes of the combustor has been computed. A time-resolved analysis of flame positions from stable combustion mode to unstable mode has been carried out. The results show that the general flame in depth distribution is different under the stable, transition and unstable combustion modes. The most scattered in depth distribution is observed in the transition combustion mode. The technique is most suitable for practical devices with very limited optical access.