Performance of digital image velocimetry processing techniques

Digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV)-processing techniques have become increasingly more sophisticated in recent years. However, much work is still done using standard traditional methods of analysis. This paper investigates several traditionally based techniques for cross-correlation image processing in terms of computational efficiency and measurement accuracy. Direct spatial domain correlation, standard fast Fourier transform (FFT) correlation, a dynamic FFT correlation technique, and a new hybrid correlation method are discussed and evaluated. In addition, a particle-tracking velocimetry scheme based on that of Cowen and Monismith (1997) is examined in the same context as the DPIV methods. A detailed examination of the behaviors of each correlation method reveals that direct spatial domain correlation is more accurate than FFT-based methods, with the standard FFT correlation showing the weakest performance. Using the more robust methods (dynamic FFT and hybrid correlation), accuracy can be improved significantly over the standard FFT method in many cases, while still remaining computationally efficient. The particle-tracking algorithm studied was found to yield comparable accuracy to the DPIV routines and can provide much higher spatial- resolution possibilities. Received: 3 September 1999 / Accepted: 21 June 2001 Published online: 29 November 2001     

New insights into particle image velocimetry data using fuzzy-logic-based correlation/particle tracking processing

Digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) data processing has been developed to the point where DPIV image data are processed via auto- or cross-correlation techniques in near real time and the results are displayed on screen as they are processed. Correlation techniques are highly desirable, since they provide velocity measurements on a regular grid, which are readily comparable to CFD predictions of the flow field. In high-speed flows, particle lag effects are always of concern; however, the correlation operation does not provide any means for minimization or elimination of systematic errors in the recorded particle image data. In this paper, we present a combined correlation processing/particle tracking technique providing “super-resolution” velocity measurements. Fuzzy-logic principles are employed to maximize the information recovery in the correlation operation and to determine the correct particle pairings in the tracking operation. The combined correlation/particle tracking technique is applied to DPIV data obtained in the diffuser region of a high-speed centrifugal compressor producing velocity vector maps with an average density of 6 vectors/mm². Inspection of the particle tracking results revealed large particles that were not following the flow. Using preknowledge of the flow field, the biased velocity estimates arising from large particles in the flow were removed, thereby improving the accuracy of the measurements. Received: 21 October 1999/Accepted: 19 August 2000     

Dual-camera DPIV for flow studies past artificial heart valves

A video-based digital-particle-image-velocimetry (DPIV) system with a time-delayed dual-camera recording was built for investigation of the unsteady flow structure in a pulsating flow behind artificial heart valves. The delay between the master and slave image is arbitrary by adjusting a phase-shift in the phase synchronization of the consumer video-cameras which represents a cheap and easy way to perform video-based cross-correlation DPIV at high velocities like that in heart valve flows. A calibration procedure was necessary to correct for misalignment of the image acquisition system with regard to translation and tilt of both image planes. With a framing rate of 50 Hz and continuous recording, a large number of PIV recordings at a rate of 50 Hz can be captured which enables to resolve the flow evolution in detail as demonstrated by a sequence showing the generation and sweep down of starting vortices behind the leaflets for the Bjork—Shiley—Monostrut (BSM) and Sorin—Bicarbon (SB) heart valves during the opening phase. Long-term recording with the video system over several hundreds of beating cycles offers statistical investigation of cycle-resolved fluctuations and evaluation of shear stresses. In general, this system is very suitable for video-based DPIV at higher velocities when a pulsed and synchronized illumination is not available or difficult to implement.     

Low cost, high resolution DPIV for measurement of turbulent fluid flow

 An optimized cross-correlation based Imaging Velocimetry system is described and its performance is evaluated in numerical and physical experiments. Given a discrete image array pair, the flow seeding and image processing parameters are optimized to maximize displacement accuracy, regardless of the computational cost; collectively these techniques are known as Correlation Imaging Velocimetry (CIV). Order of magnitude improvements over standard DPIV methods can readily be obtained, allowing high resolution measurements to be made with low cost standard resolution cameras. Fundamental limits on the measurable range of length, velocity and vorticity scales are identified, and related to those encountered in homogeneous, 3D turbulence. The current restrictions apply to all imaging velocimetry measurements; some paths for future research that are likely to be profitable are identified, together with some that are not. Extensive use of CIV in this and other laboratories has allowed direct verification of these optimization principals. Received: 26 January 1996/Accepted: 2 April 1997     

Measurement of fully-developed turbulent pipe flow with digital particle image velocimetry

A new and unique high-resolution image acquisition system for digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) in turbulent flows is used for the measurement of fully-developed turbulent pipe flow at a Reynolds number of 5300. The flow conditions of the pipe flow match those of a direct numerical simulation (DNS) and of measurements with conventional (viz., photographic) PIV and with laser-Doppler velocimetry (LDV). This experiment allows a direct and detailed comparison of the conventional and digital implementations of the PIV method for a non-trivial unsteady flow. The results for the turbulence statistics and power spectra show that the level of accuracy for DPIV is comparable to that of conventional PIV, despite a considerable difference in the interrogation pixel resolution, i.e. 32 × 32 (DPIV) versus 256 × 256 (PIV). This result is in agreement with an earlier analytical prediction for the measurement accuracy. One of the advantages of DPIV over conventional PIV is that the interrogation of the DPIV images takes only a fraction of the time needed for the interrogation of the PIV photographs.     

An experimental investigation into the effect of vortex generators on the near-wake flow of a circular cylinder

The effect of the streamwise vortex generators on the near-wake flow structure of a circular cylinder was experimentally investigated. Digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) measurements were performed in a large circulating water tunnel facility at a Reynolds number of 41,300 where the flow around a bare cylinder was expected to be at the sub-critical flow state. In order to capture various flow properties and to provide a detailed wake flow topology, the DPIV images were analysed with three different but complementary flow field decomposition techniques which are Reynolds averaging, phase averaging and proper orthogonal decomposition (POD). The effect of the vortex generators was clearly demonstrated both in qualitative and in quantitative manner. Various topological features such as vorticity and stress distribution of the flow fields as well as many other key flow characteristics including the length scales and the Strouhal number were discussed in the study. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the study presents the first DPIV visualization of the near-wake flow of a circular cylinder fitted with the vortex generators in the open literature.     

Experimental study of heat flux in mixed convective flow over solid waves

In this experimental study, we address transport processes in a mixed convective flow over a heated wavy surface. Therefore, we combine digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) and two-color planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) to simultaneously measure the velocity and temperature field. For this, we propose to use the dye combination Rhodamine B and Rhodamine 110, both excited with the Nd:YAG laser also used for the PIV measurements. We investigate the influence of mixed convection over a wavy surface on the velocity field, turbulence statistics, the temperature field and the heat flux. By computing these quantities we find a correlation between the maximum in the Reynolds stress profiles and the components of the heat flux vector, thus regions of maximum momentum and scalar transport coincide. In addition, we apply a proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) to extract the most dominant flow structures in a measurement plane above the wavy surface. This first POD mode is identified as streamwise-oriented, counter-rotating vortices whose spanwise scaling is also correlated with the maximum of heat flux.     

Turbulent flow around a surface-mounted obstacle using 2D-3C DPIV

The mean turbulent flow structure around a cube mounted on the surface of an open-surface water channel was studied using a two-dimensional implementation of digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV). The out-of-plane velocity component was obtained by the use of the concept of continuity applied to two-dimensional velocity fields recorded in parallel planes. Various methods were used for the identification and localization of large-scale vortical structures in the three-dimensional flow around the surface-mounted obstacle. The results show the feasibility of its application to three-dimensional PIV data and the superior performance of recent identification techniques (namely swirling strength and normalized angular momentum), over the classical vorticity-based criterion.     

Measuring evaporation of micro-fuel droplets using magnified DIH and DPIV

This paper details the use of magnified digital in-line holography (MDIH) and digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) to measure the evaporation rates of fuel micro-droplets undergoing heating. The technique can be used to measure instantaneous evaporation along an individual droplet trajectory, or if applied to a series of droplets, the average evaporation over a number of successive measurement locations. The advantage of this technique over traditional optical techniques is greater spatial resolution and depth of field for the high magnification factors used. An application of the technique to the evaporation measurement of diesel fuel droplets ranging from 10 to 90 μm is presented. Results reveal that similar to larger droplets, temperature plays the dominant role in evaporation processes, with little sensitivity to initial droplet size found for a peak reactor temperature of 660 K.     

Digital particle image velocimetry/thermometry and application to the wake of a heated circular cylinder

 Digital particle image velocimetry/thermometry (DPIV/T) is a technique whereby the velocity and temperature fields are obtained using thermochromic liquid crystal (TLC) seeding particles in water. In this paper, the uncertainty levels associated with temperature and velocity measurements using DPIV/T are studied. The study shows that large uncertainties are encountered when the temperature is measured from individual TLC particles. Therefore, an averaging procedure is presented which can reduce the temperature uncertainties. The uncertainty is reduced by computing the average temperature of the particles within the common specified sampling window used for standard DPIV. Using this procedure, the velocity and temperature distributions of an unsteady wake behind a heated circular cylinder are measured experimentally at Re=610. The instantaneous DPIV/T measurements are shown to be useful for computing statistical flow quantities, such as mean and velocity-temperature correlations. Received: 3 January 2000/Accepted: 26 June 2000     

Measurement of mixing processes with combined digital particle image velocimetry and planar laser induced fluorescence

A combined digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) and planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) approach was developed to measure both the time mean and turbulent mass transport in mixing processes. The system couples the two well-known techniques to enable synchronized planar measurements of flow velocities and concentrations in a study area. The potential interference effect between the seeding particles for DPIV and the fluorescent dye excitation for PLIF was carefully investigated. The performance of the system was verified with the experimental results of a turbulent round jet discharging into a stagnant environment. Comparison between the measurements obtained in the present study with the large body of existing information on pure jets is satisfactory. The key advantage of the shorter duration required with this approach compared to point-based techniques is highlighted.     

A hybrid digital particle tracking velocimetry technique

A novel approach to digital particle tracking velocimetry (DPTV) based on cross-correlation digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) is presented that eliminates the need to interpolate the randomly located velocity vectors (typical of tracking techniques) and results in significantly improved resolution and accuracy. In particular, this approach allows for the direct measurement of mean squared fluctuating gradients, and thus several important components of the turbulent dissipation. The effect of various parameters (seeding density, particle diameter, dynamic range, out-of-plane motion, and gradient strength) on accuracy for both DPTV and DPIV are investigated using a Monte Carlo simulation and optimal values are reported. Validation results are presented from the comparison of measurements by the DPTV technique in a turbulent flat plate boundary layer to laser Doppler anemometer (LDA) measurements in the same flow as well as direct numerical simulation (DNS) data. The DPIV analysis of the images used for the DPTV validation is included for comparison. Received: 29 August 1994/Accepted: 31 May 1996     

Characterization of the tip clearance flow in an axial compressor using 3-D digital PIV

The accurate characterization and simulation of rotor tip clearance flows has received much attention in recent years due to their impact on compressor performance and stability. At NASA Glenn the first known three dimensional digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) measurements of the tip region of a low speed compressor rotor have been acquired to characterize the behavior of the rotor tip clearance flow. The measurements were acquired phase-locked to the rotor position so that changes in the tip clearance vortex position relative to the rotor blade can be seen. The DPIV technique allows the magnitude and relative contributions of both the asynchronous motions of a coherent structure and the temporal unsteadiness to be evaluated. Comparison of measurements taken at the peak efficiency and at near stall operating conditions characterizes the mean position of the clearance vortex and the changes in the unsteady behavior of the vortex with blade loading. Comparisons of the 3-D DPIV measurements at the compressor design point to a 3D steady N-S solution are also done to assess the fidelity of steady, single-passage simulations to model an unsteady flow field.     

Power-filter technique for modifying depth of correlation in microPIV experiments

A new image filtering method, termed power-filtering, is proposed for use in microscopic particle image velocimetry (PIV) to control the depth of correlation, independent of the image acquisition system, particle size, and flow characteristics. An analytical model of the depth of correlation for the filtered images is developed and verified with a series of careful experiments. This model predicts that the depth of correlation can be increased or decreased by a factor of two by applying power-filter values of 0.63 and 2.0, respectively. Experiments show that the analytical model for the power filtering technique is generally accurate to within the measurement uncertainty.     

In vitro post-stenotic flow quantification and validation using echo particle image velocimetry (Echo PIV)

Echo particle image velocimetry (Echo PIV) presents itself as an attractive in vivo flow quantification technique to traditional approaches. Promising results have been acquired; however, limited quantification and validation is available for post-stenotic flows. We focus here on the comprehensive evaluation of in vitro downstream stenotic flow quantified by Echo PIV and validated in relation to digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV). A Newtonian blood analog was circulated through a closed flow loop and quantified immediately downstream of a 50 % axisymmetric blockage at two Reynolds numbers (Re) using time-averaged Echo PIV and DPIV. Centerline velocities were in good agreement at all Re; however, Echo PIV measurements presented with elevated standard deviation (SD) at all measurements points. SD was improved using increased line density (LD); however, frame rate or field of view (FOV) is compromised. Radial velocity profiles showed close agreement with DPIV with the largest disparity in the shear layer and near-wall recirculation. Downstream recirculation zones were resolved by Echo PIV at both Re; however, magnitude and spatial coverage was reduced compared to DPIV that coincided with reduced contrast agent penetration beyond the shear layer. Our findings support the use of increased LD at a cost to FOV and highlight reduced microbubble penetration beyond the shear layer. High local SD at near-wall measurements suggests that further refinement is required before proceeding to in vivo quantification studies of wall shear stress in complex flow environments.     

DPIV study of near-stall wake-rotor interactions in a transonic compressor

Wake-rotor interactions at near-stall conditions are studied using digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) in a transonic compressor at the Compressor Aero Research Lab (CARL) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base. The wake generators (WGs) are designed to simulate wakes of highly loaded stators without producing flow swirl. Flow visualization, instantaneous, and average velocity field data are presented for near-stall compressor operating conditions. These results describe the interaction of the wake shed from the upstream WG with the downstream potential field of the rotor leading edge for two axial spacings at 75 and 90% span. The advantage of ensemble averaging is demonstrated when operating at challenging conditions such as near-stall, which poses special difficulties in obtaining DPIV data. Ensemble averaging, which is possible because of a natural phase locking provided by the blade potential field, allows robust statistics.     

The optimal distributed filtering for the coupled systems with random delay

The interactions between subsystems are important for large-scale systems, which render the whole system highly nonlinear. In this paper, we address the optimal distributed filtering problem for a kind of local strongly coupled systems. The coupled systems interact by communication in which there are random delays and data dropouts. First, we conduct a strongly coupled system with communication between the nodes. Applying the standard Kalman filter design procedures to such systems is difficult because of transmission delay and intermittent communication. Then, we use the stochastic theory and state augmentation technique for the proposed systems. We present the optimal filtering problem in terms of the full system dynamics. Finally, the numerical simulations show the effectiveness of the filtering method proposed.     

两串列扑翼的相位差对平均推力影响机理的实验研究

在一个低雷诺数的循环水洞中,实验研究了前后翅翼之间的相位差对两串列扑翼平均推力的影响.利用一个三分量的Kistler 压力传感器来测量扑翼的瞬时力;利用一个数字粒子测速仪系统(TSI DPIV) 来测量扑翼的前缘涡以及其周围的流场. 当相位差从0° 增加到360°,前翅的平均推力随着相位差正弦变化;前翅平均推力的增加是由于后翅的前缘涡和滞止区域增加了前翅的有效攻角. 后翅平均推力曲线有一个明显的V 字形低谷.低谷处较小的平均推力是由于前翅的脱落涡抑制了后翅前缘涡的形成并且减小了其有效攻角.当间距为0.5倍弦长相位差约为290°时,前后翅翼平均推力系数的合值能达到最大值0.667,明显大于两倍的单翼平均推力系数(2×0.255).