An acetylene-oxygen flame using various diluents for the study of broadening and shift of spectral lines

Abstract

A burner to support an acetylene-oxygen flame with various gases (N 2, He, Ar, CO 2) as diluents was constructed for the study of broadening and shift of spectral lines with these gases as perturbers. The design provides complete shielding of a central flame zone into which the carrier elements of the spectral lines are introduced. The purpose of the shielding of the colored flame zone is protection against infiltration of atmospheric air and uniformity of temperature and vapor density of the carrier element across this zone. A test on possible infiltration of air is made by investigating the occurence of CN bands in the emission spectrum of the “clean” flame from the reaction zone and from regions above this zone. Temperature and density distributions are examined by photoelectric line reversal and absolute line intensity measurements. The question whether equilibrium conditions can be expected in the flame zones used in these experiments is briefly discussed.