EPJ Techn Instrum (2018) 5: 4
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjti/s40485-018-0045-1

Research article

Schlieren imaging: a powerful tool for atmospheric plasma diagnostic

¹ Department of Industrial Engineering, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, Viale del Risorgimento 2, 40136, Bologna, Italy
² Center for Industrial Research - Advanced Applications in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Technology, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, Viale del Risorgimento 2, 40136, Bologna, Italy
³ Department for Life Quality Studies, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, Corso d’Augusto 237, 47921, Rimini, Italy
⁴ FloViz Inc., Port Matilda, PA, 16870, USA

^* e-mail: vittorio.colombo@unibo.it
^** e-mail: gss2@psu.edu

Received: 31 January 2018
Accepted: 24 April 2018
Published online: 10 May 2018

Abstract

Schlieren imaging has been widely used in science and technology to investigate phenomena occurring in transparent media. In particular, it has proven to be a powerful tool in fundamental studies and process optimization for atmospheric pressure plasma diagnostics, providing qualitative and (in some cases) also quantitative information on the fluid-dynamic characteristics of plasmas generated by many different types of sources. However, obtaining significant and reliable results by schlieren imaging can be challenging, especially when considering the variety of geometries and applications of atmospheric pressure plasma sources. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt solutions that can address the specific issues of different plasma-assisted processes. In this paper, an overview on the use of the schlieren imaging technique for atmospheric pressure plasma characterization is presented. In the first part, the physical principles behind this technique and the different setups that can be adopted to perform it are presented. In the second part, examples of schlieren imaging applied to different kinds of atmospheric pressure plasmas (non-equilibrium plasma jets, plasma actuators for flow control and thermal plasma sources) are presented, showing how it was used to characterize the fluid-dynamic behavior of plasma-assisted processes and reporting best practices in performing this diagnostic technique.