Revealing the impact of laser-induced breakdown on a gas flow

Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is an optical, and thus non-contact, but not non-invasive, measurement technique. Investigating the impact of laser-induced breakdown on a gas flow, combined LIBS and particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements are performed. In the considered laminar air flow, the induced velocity field disturbance has an extent of about 0.7 cm with magnitudes up to 0.9 ms−1. As a further result, the combination of LIBS with other measurement techniques or high-speed LIBS measurements are found to require a minimal time delay of about 500 s in order to ensure influence of the preceding LIBS pulse on the considered gas flow of about 10 % relative velocity deviation. For a reduction to 0 % relative velocity deviation a time delay of about 20 ms is estimated for the investigated flow. Smaller time delays may occur in turbulent flows or flows with higher velocities.