Step Response Characteristics of Polymer/Ceramic Pressure-Sensitive Paint

Experiments and numerical simulations have been used in this work to understand the step response characteristics of Polymer/Ceramic Pressure-Sensitive Paint (PC-PSP). A recently developed analytical model describing the essential physics in PC-PSP quenching kinetics is used, which includes the effect of both diffusion time scale and luminescent lifetime on the net response of PC-PSP. Step response simulations using this model enables an understanding of the effects of parameters, such as the diffusion coefficient of O₂ in the polymer/ceramic coating, attenuation of excitation light, ambient luminescent lifetime, sensitivity, and the magnitude and direction of pressure change on the observed response time scales of PC-PSP. It was found that higher diffusion coefficient and greater light attenuation lead to faster response, whereas longer ambient lifetime and larger sensitivity lead to slower response characteristics. Due to the inherent non-linearity of the Stern-Volmer equation, response functions also change with magnitude and direction of the pressure change. Experimental results from a shock tube are presented where the effects of varying the roughness, pressure jump magnitude and luminophore probe have been studied. Model parameters have been varied to obtain a good fit to experimental results and this optimized model is then used to obtain the response time for a step decrease in pressure, an estimate of which is currently not obtainable from experiments.