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Development of a vapor-based method for seeding alkali metals in shock tube facilities

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Abstract

This note presents a vapor-based seeding apparatus, named the external alkali seeding instrument (EASI), which is designed to introduce alkali metal vapors into experimental facilities without using precursors or large auxiliary equipment. The device vaporizes small amounts of alkali metals, potassium in this work, which are then carried away by an inert gas. In a benchtop flow cell, carrier gas flow rate (6–\(200~\hbox {cm}^3/\hbox {s}\)) and device temperature (150–\(250\,^{\circ }\hbox {C}\)) most strongly affected potassium-vapor concentrations. Higher values of either quantity lead to increased potassium-vapor concentrations. When using the EASI to seed a shock tube experiment, vapor-phase potassium was detected immediately after the incident and reflected shockwaves using a laser absorption diagnostic. Mole fraction time histories stay within a factor of 2 over the test time as compared with those from a precursor-based seeding approach, which may span multiple orders of magnitude. This suggests potassium is nearly homogeneously distributed throughout the test gas. This design can be extended to other low-vapor-pressure elements, such as other alkalis or sulfur, with minimal modifications. The EASI simplifies seeding for laboratory experiments targeting potassium and other alkali metals—enabling advances in fundamental spectroscopy, diagnostic development, and chemical kinetics.

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Data availability

The datasets used for the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This material is based upon work supported by, or in part by, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under the Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Science (ROSES) Exoplanet Research Program Award No. 80NSSC20K0258 with Stephen Rinehart as technical monitor and the Office of Naval Research (ONR) under Award No. N00014-20-1-2322 with Eric Marineau as technical monitor. J. Vandervort acknowledges financial support from the U.S. Department of Defense through a NDSEG fellowship. S. Barnes acknowledges financial support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellowship under Grant No. DGE-2146755.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. High Temperature Gasdynamics Laboratory, Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, 438 Panama St., Bldg. 570, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA

    J. A. Vandervort, S. C. Barnes, C. L. Strand & R. K. Hanson

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  1. J. A. Vandervort
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  2. S. C. Barnes
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  3. C. L. Strand
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Correspondence to J. A. Vandervort.

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Communicated by R. Bonazza.

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Vandervort, J.A., Barnes, S.C., Strand, C.L. et al. Development of a vapor-based method for seeding alkali metals in shock tube facilities. Shock Waves 34, 61–67 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00193-024-01165-6

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