Microprocessor based spectro radiometric equipment for measurement of combustion plasma temperature

Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) power generation is based on well known Faraday´s law of induction. In MHD generators, combustible products at very high temperature, having adequate electrical plasma, act as a moving conductor. Plasma temperature is one of the most important parameters which characterises the operation of MHD systems. Plasma is at high temperature, around 3000 K. Conventional contact type temperature measuring devices are not suitable for measuring the plasma temperatures. The emission absorption pyrometry principle is used to develop spectroradiometric equipment for plasma temperature measurement. Modified line reversal theory is applied to obtain an expression for the plasma temperature. The equipment developed uses that expression for computation of temperature. This standalone equipment is microprocessor based, so that measurement of combustion plasma temperature is made automatic and provided in the form of recorded data. Equipment designed was tested and gave a satisfactory performance. Though laser based techniques are the state-of-art, they are not considered for implementation, due to their complexities, sophistications and high cost, prohibiting their use in crude industrial environments