Single Beam Schlieren Interferometer Using a Wollaston Prism

Abstract

A standard single pass schlieren system was converted into a single beam schlieren interferometer by replacing the knife edge with a polarizer–Wollaston prism–analyzer combination. The system is described and an analysis given that relates the fringe shifts on the interferogram to density changes in the test section. The proper location of the density difference is discussed. A complex gas dynamic flow field was investigated with this interferometer, and the results were shown to compare well with theoretical predictions.