Fiber Laser Intracavity Spectroscopy of hot water for temperature and concentration measurements

The feasibility of temperature and concentration measurements using near-IR (similar to 1.5 mu m) water spectra obtained by fiber laser intracavity spectroscopy was evaluated. The spectra were registered with water vapor heated in a tubular oven at temperatures between 1000 and 1300 K and in adiabatic flames where temperatures were above 1800 K. Adiabatic flames of methane were stabilized on the heat flux burner. For temperature and concentration evaluation, the observed spectra were fitted by simulated spectra calculated utilizing the HITEMP database. Several discrepancies between HITEMP data and the experiments leading to significant errors in evaluation were found. After small corrections to the database better, accuracy of the temperature (+/- 70 K) and concentration (+/- 20 %) measurements is obtained. A more precise spectroscopic assignment is needed to improve the accuracy of the results