Measuring Temperature in Explosive Environments

This course will cover traditional and modern approaches to measuring temperature in the extreme conditions associated with high explosive detonation product environments. Four

general topical areas will be covered: i) physical probes including armored thermocouples using advanced techniques to reconstruct temperature on time scales below the thermocouple temporal response time, ii) optical pyrometry using multichannel approaches from both discrete and imaging sensors, color camera/filter-based techniques, and emissivity, optical depth, and line-of-sight issues, iii) optical emission spectroscopy using naturally occurring intermediates such as AlO, CN, and OH, impurities such as calcium and iron, and added dopants, and iv) tunable laser approaches with armored probed using water vapor or similar species to obtain local, time-resolved temperatures within the fireball. The course will focus more on practical aspects of making these measurements and on issues associated with interpretation and uncertainty, rather than a simple demonstration.

Students will be given a workbook for the course that includes the lecture notes as well as a library of reference materials and key papers associated with each diagnostic.

This course is aimed at students who are interested in diagnostics of explosive system and/or who would like to learn more about the practical aspects and limitations of making temperature measurements in these extreme conditions.