Equipment
CSE has extensive experience, expertise and the necessary facilities to test, develop and quantify the performance of combustion and flow systems. With well over a hundred years of combined experience in experimental combustion, heat transfer and fluid mechanics, CSE personnel have studied a multitude of different combustion, fire and flow systems. Flow properties, such as pressure, temperature, chemical composition, heat release rate and a host of other important variables can be characterized in our laboratories.

Laboratory Facilities

• Six (6) conditioned lab spaces for bench-scale experiments (approximately 1500 sq. ft)
• Two laser / optical diagnostics laboratories (vibration-isolated tables etc.)
• Three indoor unconditioned lab spaces for larger scale experiments (approximately 5000 sq. ft.)
• Working agreements with outside laboratories / testing facilities for specialized /large-scale experiments
• Exhaust systems capable of venting fires up to 400 kW (larger heat release fires can be handled at nearby facility)
• Mock-up of two-room (each room is 8x 10) and corridor (3-ft wide) setting. Used for smoke detector / smoke travel studies
• High-Pressure Vessel (Bench-scale)
• Pressures up to 20 atmospheres
• High-Temperature Flow Reactor
• Atmospheric and sub-atmospheric pressure
• Variable “air” composition.  Can simulate vitiated air including water content.
• Can handle gaseous and liquid fuels
• Some machining capabilities on site (mill, lathe).

Flow Capabilities

The size of combustion experiments is typically limited by air flow capacity.  CSE has two in-house air sources:

• Atmospheric pressure blower:   1.25 lbs/sec (0.56 kg /s)
• Compressed air:  0.5 lbs/sec at up to 120 psi

Fuels are normally stored in high-pressure cylinders or as liquids.  When large amounts of fuel or other compressed gases are needed, CSE has room to bring in a tube-trailer if needed.

Instrumentation

• Gas Analyzers
• CO2 (NDIR)
• CO (NDIR)
• O2 (Paramagnetic)
• NOx (Chemiluminescence)
• FTIR
• Precision-Controlled Oven (e.g. self-heating experiments)
• Spectrometers
• 0.5 meter path length with 2-D CCD Array
• 7-channel Fiber-Coupled
• Light Sources
• Broadband Ultraviolet
• ND*YAG (532 nm) pulsed laser
• He-Ne (633 and 3.39 µm) CW laser
• Mass / Volumetric Flow Rates
• Heat Flux
• Temperature
• Digital and High-speed Video
• Particle Concentration Sensors
• Acceleration Sensors