Optimization of camera arrangement for volumetric tomography with constrained optical access

Due to the asymmetric and dynamic nature of turbulent flames encountered in practical combustors, three-dimensional measurements have been long desired to resolve the complex flame structures. Volumetric tomography has been demonstrated to be a powerful tool for this purpose. However, for practical applications, typically only a few high-speed cameras can be applied due to their high expense and the limited optical access of the combustor. Thus, the camera arrangement is of paramount importance in order to fully explore useful information of the target fields. This work proposes an optimization method for camera arrangement to minimize the correlation between the projections captured from different perspectives. Simulative studies based on computed tomography of chemiluminescence were conducted to validate the feasibility of the method. Results suggest that the optimized camera arrangement defined in the 4π space can reconstruct the flame structures more faithfully than the commonly adopted distribution defined in a 2π space reported in the literature for scenarios in which the optical access is constrained due to the existence of obstacles.