Digital Interferometric Measurement of Forced Convection Heat Transfer in a Miniature Rectangular Channel

Investigations have been performed on convective heat transfer in water flowing through mini-channels using the non intrusive technique of laser interferometry coupled with digital image processing. Optical glass channels, fabricated with metallic heating surfaces, were studied using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer configuration. Fringe patterns captured using a high-sensitivity CCD camera were analyzed digitally based on a calculation method developed for the liquid medium. Results of parametric studies were compared and contrasted with relevant theoretical solutions from the literature. Indication of the onset of turbulence at Reynolds numbers smaller than the conventional transition Reynolds number for large channels has also been noticed in the experimental investigation.     

一种不同地面分辨率图像的拼接算法

航空遥感监测中变焦镜头的广泛应用以及飞行高度的变化会获得不同地面分辨率的航空影像,因此为了实时监控到飞行区域的整体情况,需要对不同地面分辨率的图像进行拼接。提出了针对不同地面分辨率图像进行拼接的方法。首先用四分法对图像进行分割,检测变化倍率,选择配准策略;然后用基于加速鲁棒性特征(Speeded-Up Robust Features,SURF)的算法对相邻图像进行拼接。获得了焦距变化从高倍过渡到低倍,或从低倍过渡到高倍的拼接图像。通过航空变焦模拟影像的拼接实验和地面变焦影像的拼接实验表明,该方法能够对不同地面分辨率的图像进行拼接,且拼接结果均以高分辨率为基准。     

Comment on “On the Neumann function and the method of images in spherical and ellipsoidal geometry”

In this note, we point out two errors in the article “On the Neumann function and the method of images in spherical and ellipsoidal geometry” by Dassios and Sten. Two corrections are then proposed.     

Computational investigation toward selective collection of water particles containing odorous molecules by electrostatic spraying

The necessity of odor sensing has been increasing from environmental and health standpoints. Here, we propose the novel concept of a small device which can select odor molecules based on electrostatic spraying. For high selectivity of the target gas or odor, we conducted computational fluid dynamics coupled with an electrostatic field, as well as measurements by particle image velocimetry and anemometry. The computational model successfully reproduced characteristic features of ionic wind. Different trajectories of charged particles were computationally obtained owing to their electrical mobility. The results imply that different materials might be separated by the arrangement of the collecting electrode.     

Evolution of downsized crescent-shaped dune in wind tunnel experiment

The migration of a downsized crescent-shaped dune was investigated in a wind tunnel experiment.Quantified upwind influx and vertical oscillation of the sand bed were introduced to modulate the saturation level of the sand flux above the dune surface to affect dune evolution.The evolution was recorded by top-view photography and then abstracted as the evolution of self-defined characteristic quantities using a digital image processing algorithm.The results showed that,in contrast to the case for spanwise quantities,the evolution of streamwise quantities corresponds to a linear increase in the modulation magnitude more positively and in a monotonic and convergent manner.In contrast with quantities on the windward face,the changes in quantities with respect to the horns were nonmonotonic with time and almost uncorrelated with the variation in modulation strength,which reveals the distinctiveness of leeside evolution.     

Multi-scale retinex improvement for nighttime image enhancement

We propose a retinex improvement for nighttime image enhancement. Retinex is often used on images under non-uniform illumination in terms of either color or lightness and has satisfactory results to achieve color constancy and dynamic range compression. Few studies focus retinex on nighttime images, especially those under extreme conditions (i.e., images with over-lighted or extremely under-lighted areas or with noise speckles), on which retinex operation can perform badly. Original multi-scale retinex (MSR) is extremely sensitive to noise speckles that cameras produce in low light areas, and it has unsatisfactory effect on areas with normal or intensive illumination. Moreover, original MSR uses a gain-offset method for prior-to-display treatment and can lead to apparent data loss on nighttime images. This paper replaces the logarithm function in MSR with a customized sigmoid function to minimize data loss, and adapts MSR to nighttime images by merging results from sigmoid-MSR with original images. Experiments show our framework, when applied to nighttime images, can preserve areas with normal or intensive lighting and suppress noise speckles in extreme low light areas.     

Edge linking and image segmentation by combining optical and digital methods

We present a hybrid method for segmentation of intensity images, which combines an optical contouring technique and digital algorithms for linking edge points or image segmentation. In a first stage, the digital image to be processed is displayed in a twisted-nematic liquid-crystal display (LCD), which is placed between a polarizer–analyzer pair at 45 deg (instead of 90 deg as occurs in standard LCDs). It is not difficult to demonstrate that the proposed setup produces a resultant image with very pronounced dark contours at middle intensity. After the optical preprocessing, two different digital algorithms are applied: an edge linking algorithm (modified chain code) and a simple thresholding technique for image segmentation. The proposed procedure works well with monochromatic and color images. The method could be useful as a robust technique for segmentation of large images in real-time, which presents potential applications in medical and biological imaging.     

A technique for in situ X-ray computed tomography of deformation-induced cavitation in thermoplastics

Deformation-induced cavitation influences the mechanical response of polymeric materials, but acquiring in situ measurements of the spatial evolution of cavities has typically necessitated the use of synchrotron radiation sources. The objective of this study is to develop and demonstrate a method allowing for in situ measurements of deformation-induced cavitation in axisymmetric polymer specimens, using a home-laboratory X-ray computed tomography setup. The method is demonstrated by assessing deformation-induced cavitation of mineral-filled PVC in a repeated loading-unloading experiment. A temporal resolution of about 3 s is obtained by exploiting the axisymmetry of notched round tensile specimens. The evolution of relative density was captured throughout the experiment, revealing an interplay between void nucleation and void growth. Combined with surface deformation measurements obtained by digital image correlation, the present technique yields data suitable for calibration and validation of material models.