Ionic liquids (ILs) are promising solvents for gas separation processes such as carbon dioxide (CO2) capture from flue gases. For the design of corresponding processes and apparatus, thermophysical properties of ILs containing dissolved gases are required. In the present study, it is demonstrated that with a single optical setup, mutual and thermal diffusivities as well as refractive indices can be measured quasi-simultaneously for such mixtures. Dynamic light scattering (DLS) from bulk fluids was applied to determine mutual and thermal diffusivities for mixtures of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tricyanomethanide ([BMIM][C(CN)3]) or 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetracyanoborate ([BMIM][B(CN)4]) with dissolved CO2 at temperatures from 303.15 to 333.15 K and pressures between 2 and 26 bar in macroscopic thermodynamic equilibrium. Good agreement with literature data and only slight differences between the diffusivities measured for the two systems at the same temperature and comparable mole fractions of CO2 were found. Increasing mutual diffusivities with increasing mole fractions of CO2 are consistent with decreasing viscosities reported for other IL-CO2 mixtures in the literature and can be attributed to weakening of molecular interactions by the dissolved gas. For the conditions studied, no dependence of the thermal diffusivity on the temperature or the mole fraction of CO2 could be found.

The low-biased, fast, airborne, short-range, and range-resolved determination of atmospheric wind speeds plays a key role in wake vortex and turbulence mitigation strategies and would improve flight safety, comfort, and economy. In this work, a concept for an airborne, UV, direct-detection Doppler wind lidar receiver is presented. A monolithic, tilted, field-widened, fringe-imaging Michelson interferometer (FWFIMI) combines the advantages of low angular sensitivity, high thermo-mechanical stability, independence of the specific atmospheric conditions, and potential for fast data evaluation. Design and integration of the FWFIMI into a lidar receiver concept are described. Simulations help to evaluate the receiver design and prospect sufficient performance under different atmospheric conditions.

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DLR currently investigates the use of Doppler wind lidar as sensor within feedforward gust alleviation control loops on fast-flying fixed-wing aircraft. Such a scheme imposes strong requirements on the lidar system such as sub-m/s precision, high rate, high spatial resolution, close measurement ranges and sensitivity to mixed and pure molecular backscatter. We report on the development of a novel direct-detection Doppler wind lidar (DD-DWL) within these requirements. This DD-DWL is based on fringe-imaging of the Doppler-shifted backscatter of UV laser pulses in a field-widened Michelson interferometer using a fast linear photodetector. A prototype for airborne operation has been ground-tested in early 2018 against a commercial coherent DWL, demonstrating its ability of measuring close-range wind speeds with a precision of 0.5 m/s, independent of the actual wind speed.

We report on the development of a novel direct-detection Doppler wind lidar (DD-DWL) within the strong requirements of an aeronautic feed-forward control application for gust load alleviation (GLA). This DD-DWL is based on fringe imaging of the Doppler-shifted backscatter of ultraviolet laser pulses in a field-widened Michelson interferometer (FW-FIMI) using a fast linear photodetector. The double approach of detailed simulation and demonstrator development is validated by field measurements with reference wind sensing instrumentation. These experiments allow us to establish wind determination precision at a high repeat rate, short range resolution and close distance of approximately 0.5 m/s, which is in accordance with the dedicated simulations. These findings lead us to the conclusion that this FW-FIMI-based Doppler wind lidar is a pertinent development meeting the special requirements of this aeronautics application. Second, the developed simulators are well suited (given their validation) to be used in the overall and full analysis as well as the optimization of the lidar-based GLA control scheme.