Experimental Fluid Dynamics

Assignment II
Q4: What conditions will you test and what measurements will you take
under each condition?
We intend to use PIV as our image capturing device to measure
velocity and the pattern of the flow. The conditions depends on the seeding
particle that we use. The seeding particles are an inherently critical
component of the PIV system. Depending on the fluid under investigation,
the particles must be able to match the fluid properties reasonably well. The
total number of particle dispersed is also an important factor for PIV analysis.
And we should make sure that the particles are aligned normal to the sheet.
Otherwise they will not follow the flow satisfactorily enough for the PIV
analysis to be considered accurate. Ideal particles will have the same density
as the fluid system being used, and be spherical. Depending on the
availability of the device, we would like to measure the 3 velocity component
of the flow. This can be achieved using volumetric velocimetry (also known
as 3D PIV or Tomographic PIV) using 2 or more cameras (3 dimension/3
components). Alternatively, we could employ stereo PIV which measures
three velocity components in a plane (2 dimension/3 components) using two
cameras.
The frames of interest are split into a large number of interrogation
areas, or windows. It is then possible to calculate a displacement vector for
each window with help of autocorrelation or cross-correlation techniques.
This is converted to a velocity using the time between laser shots and the
physical size of each pixel on the camera. The size of the interrogation
window should be chosen to have at least 6 particles per window on average.
The near-instantaneous velocity field is of particular importance. PIV
therefore has all the advantages of a flow visualization method, but it can
also provide valuable quantitative information. Once the velocity field is
known, data such as vorticity and strain are easily obtained, and if there are
sufficient PIV recordings, even the turbulence intensity can be estimated.

Q5: What amount of time will this take? This is your schedule. Remember you
will only have approximately 4 weeks to complete your entire experiment, so
scope your work carefully.
Depending on the availability of the device and the experimental set
up, we could manage to complete the experiment in a period of 2 weeks.