Comparison of luminescent paints measurement systems

Techniques based on luminescent paints are a way to obtain the pressure and/or temperature distribution over a surface. Measurement systems associated with these techniques consist of an illumination source, a detector to measure the luminescence emitted by the paint coated on the surface and a procedure to relate luminescence to pressure or temperature, which all differ from one system to the other. Experiments are done at Purdue University using different luminescent paints measurement systems to obtain pressure and temperature distributions from a jet impinging obliquely on a flat plate. A cooperation between Purdue University and DERA makes it possible to group three systems for comparison. They include the CCD camera system and the laser scanning system developed at Purdue University, and the DERA fluorescent lifetime imaging (FLIM) system.