The picture of the members

Opto-Mechancal Technology Lab  

The research at the Opto-Mechanical Technology Laboratory (OMTL) covers a broad range of multidisciplinary practices involving the latest advances in laser experimentation and instrumentation for mechanical engineering. These involve: optical diagnostics for flow, heat, and combustion; photomechanics including nondestructive evaluation; gross-field multi-component velocimetry; radiative heat transfer; laser machining and processing; holographic visualization; interferometry. Not only the Laboratory is in a unique position to develop these cutting-edge techniques, but also to apply them to characterize various mechanical phenomena. Current activities are centered around three-dimensional three-components velocimetry including conventional particle/image velocimetry, tomographic interferometry for three-dimensional reconstruction of scholar field properties, automated optical testing, and spectroscopy, all for gross flow-field measurements. These tasks require mechanical expertise in experiment and comparison with numerical results in addition to the use of lasers, image processing, intelligent experimental data processing based on neural networks and expert systems, and optics. Previously, the research at the OMPL has been supported various funding agencies, either public of private. These include National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), National Science Foundation (NSF), Institute of Gas Technology, Motorola Inc., Rice Systems Inc., and Lee Company.


The Lab located in the Engineering Research Facility (ERF 1064) that contains various state-of-the-art facilities for optical diagnostics and instrumentation. Typical equipment housed in the Lab can be high-energy pulsed lasers, coherent/incoherent macro/micro diode lasers, assortment of optical components and devices, vibration-isolation optical tables and precision computer controlled three-dimensional translation stages, and those for image acquisition and processing including high performance CCD cameras.

Aims and Objectives

The objective of our Research Lab is to become a global leader in the field of optical diagnostics by developing new measurement techniques and tools, for providing deeper insight and fundamental understanding in fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and other pertinent mechanical engineering fields.

 

HOLOGRAPHIC INTERFEROGRAM OF A HEATED INTEGRATED CIRCUIT

 

 

Out-of-Plane Motion Measurement through Dual-Reference-Beam Phase-Shifting Interferometry

EXEMPLARY SETUP FOR OPTICAL DIAGNOSTICS

STEREOSCOPIC TRACKING VELOCIMETRY

Setup

Section

Extracted Three-Dimensional Velocity Field

MOCK-UP TESTING FOR 3-D DENSITY FIELD RECONSTRUCTION AROUND AIRCRAFT FOREBODY

Projection Image of The Flow Field

Slices of 3-D Flow