Improvements to PIV image analysis by recognizing the velocity gradients

Two iterative PIV image processing methods are introduced, which utilize displacement and deformation of the interrogation areas to maximize the correlation. The velocity gradients used for the window deformation are iteratively estimated directly from the images and no velocity values are required from neighbouring interrogation areas, as with numerical differentiation. The improved accuracy and resolution of the velocity gradient estimation compared to numerical differentiation is shown using synthetic images. The performance in a real application is shown using experimental reference images.