Heat Flux and Temperature Field Estimation Using Differential Interferometer

A new methodology based on least-squares approach has been developed to estimate the temperature field from an interferogram recorded using a Differential interferometer (DI). The interferograms are digitally evaluated using two dimensional Fourier transforms to retrieve the temperature gradient field. Temperature field is constructed by fitting a cubic spline to the first derivatives data. The methodology has been applied to both experimental and synthetic interferograms. Both convective heat flux and temperature field were predicted accurately. The role of image noise and errors in the temperature measurements on the temperature field estimation have been studied with the aid of synthetic interferograms.