Investigations on thermal-transfer characteristics of water based on stimulated Brillouin scattering

• An effective method for investigating the thermal-transfer of water was proposed.
• It is the first thermal-transfer measurements using the SBS method.
• The temperature profile can be described by measuring the linewidth of SBS spectrum.
• The more specific investigation on the thermocline is the subject of further studies.

In this paper, we present a successful measurement of the thermal-transfer process of water in terms of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) with a pulsed Nd:YAG laser as the light source. The temperature profiles between two different temperature layers can be determined through measuring the linewidth of SBS spectra. The measured results of thermal-transfer process of water are agree well with the theoretical simulation results based on the heat conduction equation. We have demonstrated that, the geometry width and temperature gradient of gradient layer depend on the temperature difference between T1 and T0 and different thermal-transfer times. This method presents an important step towards the practical application of a Brillouin lidar system, it could provide a potential technology for investigating the distribution characteristics of the thermocline in ocean.