In the rainbow schlieren apparatus, a continuously graded rainbow filter is placed in the back focal plane of the decollimating lens. Refractive-index gradients in the test section thus appear as gradations in hue rather than irradiance. A simple system is described wherein a conventional color CCD array and video digitizer are used to quantify accurately the color attributes of the resulting image, and hence the associated ray deflections. The present system providesva sensitivity comparable with that of conventional interferometry, while being simpler to implement and less sensitive to mechanical misalignment.
A compact optical system for use with rainbow schlieren deflectometry is described. Both halves of the optical system consist of well-corrected telescopes whose refractive elements are all from manufacturer's stock catalogs, with the reflective primary being a spherical surface. As a result, the system is relatively easy to construct and meets the requirement of long focal length for quantitative rainbow schlieren measurements.
The Analex Corporation, under contract to the NASA Lewis Research Center (LeRC), Cleveland, Ohio, recently evaluated the feasibility ofutilizing refractive secondary concentrators for solar heat receivers operating at temperatures up to 2500K. The feasibility study pointed out a number of significant advantages provided by solid single crystal refractive devices over the more conventional hollow reflective compound parabolic concentrators (CPCs). In addition to the advantages of higher concentration ratio and efficiency, the refractive concentrator, when combined with a flux extractor rod, provides for flux tailoring within the heat receiver cavity. This is a highly desirable, almost mandatory, feature for solar thermal propulsion engine designs presently being considered for NASA and Air Force solar thermal applications.Following the feasibility evaluation, the NASA-LeRC, NASA-Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC), and Analex Corporation teamed to design, fabricate, and test a refractive secondary concentrator/flux extractor system for potential use in the NASA-MSFC "Shooting Star" flight experiment. This paper describes the advantages and technical challenges associated with the development ofa refractive secondary concentrator/flux extractor system for this application. In addition it describes the design methodologies developed and utilized and the material and fabrication limitations encountered.
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