Soil flow analysis for grouser wheels based on a particle image velocimetry method

This paper presents an analysis, based on a particle image velocimetry method, of soil flow field beneath a grouser wheel traveling over loose soil. Although the grouser wheel is expected to have better traction and mobility over fine, loose soil, its interaction mechanisms with the soil remain to be elucidated. Thus, a particle image velocimetry-based soil flow analysis is conducted to directly observe soil behavior around the grouser wheel. In the experimental analysis, key parameters of the soil flow field, such as general shape, thickness, streamlines of the flow field, soil velocity on the streamlines, and soil failure angle are examined quantitatively. From the results, the soil flow shape periodically changes with wheel rotation, and this change appears, depending on wheel slip varying over time. Furthermore, the experimental result of the soil failure angle differs drastically from its typical theory. These results will contribute to modeling the mechanical interaction between the grouser wheel and soil.     

Nonlinear temporal filtering of time-resolved digital particle image velocimetry data

Nonlinear filtering methods have been developed to identify and replace outlying data points in velocity time series obtained with time-resolved digital particle image velocimetry (PIV) of the flow around a surface-mounted cube at a Reynolds number of 20,000. Nuances associated with the spectral computation of the cross-correlation are highlighted, including the requirement of zero-padding an image interrogation area to eliminate the circular components of the cross-correlation. Three nonlinear filtering methods for the replacement of outliers are applied to the velocity time series sampled at 1,000 Hz: a median filter, a decision-based Hampel filter, and a PIV-specific Hampel filter. The particular benefit of the PIV-specific Hampel filter is that it allows the retention of actual measured data, sometimes derived from alternate peaks in the cross-correlation function, while still providing for the removal of outliers when a consistent, nonoutlying measurement is not available.     

Particle image velocimetry （PIV） measurements of tip vortex wake structure of wind turbine

Large-view flow field measurements using the particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique with high resolution CCD cameras on a rotating 1/8 scale blade model of the NREL UAE phase VI wind turbine are conducted in the engineering-oriented Φ3.2 m wind tunnel.The motivation is to establish the database of the initiation and development of the tip vortex to study the flow structure and mechanism of the wind turbine.The results show that the tip vortex first moves inward for a very short period and then moves out...     

Development of a high-speed UV particle image velocimetry technique and application for measurements in internal combustion engines

A flexible, high-frame rate particle image velocimetry technique that can be applied to operating internal combustion engines in highly luminous combustion situations was developed. Two high-repetition rate diode-pumped Nd:YAG lasers operated at 355 nm and a CMOS camera were used to devise a system that allowed measurements of velocity fields near the spark plug in a firing engine at a rate of 6 kHz for 500 consecutive cycles. The 6 kHz acquisition rate enables recording one velocity field every other crank angle at 2,000 RPM engine speed. Sample results such as individual and average flow fields and kinetic energy evolutions are presented.     

Holographic particle image velocimetry applied to the flow within the cylinder of a four-valve internal combustion engine

A holographic particle-image velocimetry (HPIV) system is developed to investigate the in-cylinder air flow in a motored four-valve engine operated at 1,500 rpm. Image aberrations introduced by the optical liner of the engine are optically eliminated. The use of a reference hologram to compensate for errors induced by fine reference beam misalignments is described. The remaining errors are quantitatively discussed in the text. The application of a wavelength selected laser diode for hologram reconstruction is discussed. High-resolution velocity measurements of the in-cylinder flow are made in axial planes during the intake and compression stroke. Prospects and limitations to full three-dimensional extensions of the HPIV system are discussed. The results show with emphasis on large- and small-scale flow structures the HPIV system to be a reliable diagnostic tool for internal combustion engines.     

Analysis of soil flow and traction mechanics for lunar rovers over different types of soils using particle image velocimetry

Grouser wheels have been used in planetary rovers to improve mobility performance on sandy terrains. The biggest difference between a wheel with and without grousers is the soil behavior beneath the wheel as the grousers shovel the soil. By analyzing the soil flow, we gain insight into the mechanics dominating the interaction between the wheel and the soil, directly impacting performance. As the soil flow varies depending on the soil properties, the effects of soil type on soil behavior and wheel-traveling performance should be studied. This paper reveals the difference in soil flow and wheel performance on cohesive and non-cohesive soils. We conducted a series of single wheel tests over different types of soils under several wheel-traveling conditions. Soil flow was visualized by using particle image velocimetry (PIV). The experimental results indicate that soil flow characteristics highly depend on the shear strength of the soil. The cohesive soil exhibited lower fluidity due to its higher shear strength. At the same time, the wheel displayed a higher traveling performance over the cohesive soil, that is, a lower slip ratio.     

Tracer particle generation in superfluid helium through cryogenic liquid injection for particle image velocimetry (PIV) applications

This paper reports the first experimental study of liquid neon injection into superfluid helium (He II) through a plain orifice atomizer to explore different means of introducing micron-size tracer particles into a He II bath for particle image velocimetry (PIV) applications. The obtained results verify that the direct injection of liquid neon into He II introduces seed particles into the He II bath. It is also demonstrated that the particle sizes can be controlled by changing the pressure above the injected liquid. Additionally, the size distribution of the particles is calculated from the PIV results through the use of the correlations to the standard drag curve.     

Three-dimensional water entry of a solid body: A particle image velocimetry study

Understanding and predicting the hydrodynamic loading experienced by a solid body during water impact is critical for researchers and practitioners in naval engineering. While two-dimensional (2D) water entry problems have been extensively investigated, experimental data on 3D fluid–structure interactions during water impact are rather limited. Here, particle image velocimetry (PIV) is utilized to study the free fall vertical impact of a solid body, modeling a ship hull, on an otherwise quiescent fluid. Planar PIV is used to measure the velocity field on multiple cross-sections along the length and width of the model. These data are combined to infer the 3D velocity field in the entire fluid. The 3D velocity field is then utilized to reconstruct the pressure field by integrating the incompressible 3D Navier–Stokes equations in a time-varying domain, where both the free surface and the fluid–solid interface evolve in time. By evaluating the pressure field on the wetted surface of the model, we estimate the hydrodynamic loading during water entry. Experimental results demonstrate the central role of 3D effects on both the flow physics and the hydrodynamic loading. As the cross-sectional velocity decreases away from the mid-span, we observe a robust increase in the axial velocity component. This translates into a complex spatio-temporal dependence of the hydrodynamic loading, which is initially maximized in the vicinity of the pile-up and later increases toward the keel. Due to the deceleration of the model during the impact and the increase in the wetted surface, the hydrodynamic loading close to the mid-span in the early stage of the impact is considerably larger than the ends. The 3D flow physics is used to study the energy imparted to the fluid during the impact, which we find to be mostly transferred to the risen water, consisting of the pile-up region and the spray jet. Our methodology can be implemented for the analysis of other solid bodies with multiple geometric curvatures, and our experimental results can be utilized for the validation of 3D mathematical models of water entry.     

Gaseous flow measurements in an internal combustion engine assembly using molecular tagging velocimetry

A molecular tagging velocimetry (MTV) system was applied for mapping in-cylinder flows in an internal combustion engine. The images were captured inside an optical engine assembly that reproduces operation of a 2.2 L four stroke gasoline engine. A recently developed algorithm to process MTV images is based on a fast-normalized spatial correlation approach implemented using MATLAB software. The code allows accurate detection of the MTV grid nodes displacements. It processes simultaneously velocity vector and circulation fields for individual cycles, and ensemble averages of those over a few hundred sequential cycles to obtain mean and standard deviation values. Then probability density functions are reconstructed to quantify cycle-to-cycle variability of the in-cylinder flow.     

3D particle streak velocimetry by defocused imaging

Particle streak velocimetry (PSV) has become one of the important branches of flow filed measurements. It extracts velocity information from particle trajectories captured by single frame long exposure images. Since the defocus of moving particle is inevitable during a long exposure time and under a large magnification, a novel three-dimensional (3D) velocity measurement method named defocusing particle streak velocimetry (DPSV) is proposed in this paper. On the one hand, an extension from two-dimensional (2D) to 3D velocity measurement with a monocular system is carried out. The depth information of the particle, which reflects the position in the third dimension, is indicated by the defocusing degree (characteristic parameter σ) of the particle images. The variation of σ along the trajectory is recognized by surface fitting of the gray value distribution of particle images, assuming that σ varies linearly along the trajectory. On the other hand, based on the linear fitting for the straight trajectory, an arc fitting model is developed for curved trajectories which are commonly captured in turbulent flow. The relationship between σ and the particle depth position z is experimentally calibrated using a LED light and a diaphragm. Finally, the DPSV method is verified in a submerged jet flow field as well as in a microchannel flow field to obtain the 3D velocity field with single monocular system.     

An efficient simultaneous reconstruction technique for tomographic particle image velocimetry

To date, Tomo-PIV has involved the use of the multiplicative algebraic reconstruction technique (MART), where the intensity of each 3D voxel is iteratively corrected to satisfy one recorded projection, or pixel intensity, at a time. This results in reconstruction times of multiple hours for each velocity field and requires considerable computer memory in order to store the associated weighting coefficients and intensity values for each point in the volume. In this paper, a rapid and less memory intensive reconstruction algorithm is presented based on a multiplicative line-of-sight (MLOS) estimation that determines possible particle locations in the volume, followed by simultaneous iterative correction. Reconstructions of simulated images are presented for two simultaneous algorithms (SART and SMART) as well as the now standard MART algorithm, which indicate that the same accuracy as MART can be achieved 5.5 times faster or 77 times faster with 15 times less memory if the processing and storage of the weighting matrix is considered. Application of MLOS-SMART and MART to a turbulent boundary layer at Re _θ = 2200 using a 4 camera Tomo-PIV system with a volume of 1,000 × 1,000 × 160 voxels is discussed. Results indicate improvements in reconstruction speed of 15 times that of MART with precalculated weighting matrix, or 65 times if calculation of the weighting matrix is considered. Furthermore the memory needed to store a large weighting matrix and volume intensity is reduced by almost 40 times in this case.     

Study on local topology model of low/high streak structures in wall-bounded turbulence by tomographic time-resolved particle image velocimetry

The relationship between the bursting event and the low/high-speed streak in the logarithmic law (log-law) region of a turbulent boundary layer is investigated. A tomographic time-resolved particle image velocimetry (TRPIV) system is used to measure the instantaneous three-dimensional-three-component (3D-3C) velocity field. The momentum thickness based Reynolds number is about 2 460. The topological information in the log-law region is obtained experimentally. It is found that the existence of the quadrupole topological structure implies a three-pair hairpin-like vortex packet, which is in connection with the low/high-speed streak. An idealized 3D topological model is then proposed to characterize the observed hairpin vortex packet and low/high-speed streak.     

两相流PIV粒子图像处理方法的研究

本文在单相PIV技术的基础上研究了两相流动PIV图像处理方法，采用摸板匹配法和灰度加权标定法对两相粒子进行了识别、区分和标定，采用灰度互相关法对区分后的单相粒子图像进行了处理，应用基于以上方法编制的Windows应用软件，首先对由美国Minnesota大学复杂流动实验室提供的两相流动粒子图片进行了处理，通过对比分析可见，应用本文所采用的方法能对两相粒子进行有效的识别和区分，然后以搅拌槽内液固两相流场为例对此方法进行了应用。     

A new artificial neural network tracking technique for particle image velocimetry

 The analysis of Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) data requires effective algorithms to track efficiently the particles suspended in the fluid flow. The artificial neural network algorithm method described here presents a new approach to solve this problem. Contrary to the classic cross correlation method, this new method does not require a large number of particles per frame, it can handle flows with large velocity gradients, and is suited for tracking images with multiple exposures as well as tracking through consecutive images. The algorithm was tested on synthetic and available experimental data to provide a thorough performance analysis. Received: 28 May 1996/Accepted: 25 December 1996     

Assessment of camera models for use in planar velocimetry calibration

The performance of three implementations of pinhole-based camera models for use in common light-sheet imaging arrangements is investigated on the background of application to particle image velocimetry (PIV) and Doppler global velocimetry (DGV). Calibration data obtained from translated planar calibration targets was found to yield camera attitude within 0.1° on four different test cases with object distance varying as little as 2% depending on the choice of camera model. Camera calibration using data from a single image of coplanar points is considered a viable alternative to manual triangulation of camera positions but is restricted to off-normal viewing directions.

Experimental study on wheel-soil interaction mechanics using in-wheel sensor and particle image velocimetry part II. Analysis and modeling of shear stress of lightweight wheeled vehicle

Wheeled vehicle mobility on loose sand is highly subject to shear deformation of sand around the wheel because the shear stress generates traction force of the wheel. The main contribution of this paper is to improve a shear stress model for a lightweight wheeled vehicle on dry sand. This work exploits two experimental approaches, an in-wheel sensor and a particle image velocimetry that precisely measure the shear stress and shear deformation generated at the interaction boundary. Further, the paper improves a shear stress model. The model proposed in this paper considers a force chain generated inside the granular media, boundary friction between the wheel surface and sand, and velocity dependency of the friction. The proposed model is experimentally validated, and its usefulness is confirmed through numerical simulation of the wheel traction force. The simulation result confirmed that the proposed model calculated the traction force with an accuracy about 70%, whereas the conventional one overestimated the force, and its accuracy was 13% at the best.     

A synchronized particle image velocimetry and infrared thermography technique applied to an acoustic streaming flow

Subsurface coherent structures and surface temperatures are investigated using simultaneous measurements of particle image velocimetry (PIV) and infrared (IR) thermography. Results for coherent structures from acoustic streaming and associated heating transfer in a rectangular tank with an acoustic horn mounted horizontally at the sidewall are presented. An observed vortex pair develops and propagates in the direction along the centerline of the horn. From the PIV velocity field data, distinct kinematic regions are found with the Lagrangian coherent structure (LCS) method. The implications of this analysis with respect to heat transfer and related sonochemical applications are discussed.     

A genetic algorithm particle pairing technique for 3D velocity field extraction in holographic particle image velocimetry

 This research explores a novel technique, using Genetic Algorithm Particle Pairing (GAPP) to extract three-dimensional (3D) velocity fields of complex flows. It is motivated by Holographic Particle Image Velocimetry (HPIV), in which intrinsic speckle noise hinders the achievement of high particle density required for conventional correlation methods in extracting 3D velocity fields, especially in regions with large velocity gradients. The GA particle pairing method maps particles recorded at the first exposure to those at the second exposure in a 3D space, providing one velocity vector for each particle pair instead of seeking statistical averaging. Hence, particle pairing can work with sparse seeding and complex 3D velocity fields. When dealing with a large number of particles from two instants, however, the accuracy of pairing results and processing speed become major concerns. Using GA’s capability to search a large solution space parallelly, our algorithm can efficiently find the best mapping scenarios among a large number of possible particle pairing schemes. During GA iterations, different pairing schemes or solutions are evaluated based on fluid dynamics. Two types of evaluation functions are proposed, tested, and embedded into the GA procedures. Hence, our Genetic Algorithm Particle Pairing (GAPP) technique is characterized by robustness in velocity calculation, high spatial resolution, good parallelism in handling large data sets, and high processing speed on parallel architectures. It has been successfully tested on a simple HPIV measurement of a real trapped vortex flow as well as a series of numerical experiments. In this paper, we introduce the principle of GAPP, analyze its performance under different parameters, and evaluate its processing speed on different computer architectures. Received: 7 September 1997/Accepted: 3 February 1998