An analytical and experimental study of spectral analysis techniques for turbulence data obtained using laser velocimetry

Two spectral analysis techniques - the correlation method of Mayo, et. al., and the direct transform method of Gaster and Roberts - were evaluated for use in making spectral estimates from randomly-sampled random data (such as turbulence data obtained with an individual realization laser Doppler velocimeter (LDV)). The effect of "bad" points (which usually appear randomly in actual LDV data sets) on the spectral estimates has been studied. Necessary modifications and extensions to the techniques have been determined based on studies using simulated data with known spectral characteristics. Both techniques were used for spectral analysis of laser Doppler velocimeter measurements taken in a simulated coal-fired magnetohydrodynamic flow field.