Continuous Scanning, Laser Imaging Velocimetry

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Fincham, A. M.^;

Affiliations: Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089-1191, USA. E-mail: afincham@usc.edu | Laboratoire des Ecoulements Géophysiques et Industriels (LEGI), CNRS-UJF-INPG, Grenoble, France

Abstract: Careful exploitation of the anisotropy native to late time stratified and rotating flows permits the use of a laser scanning measurement technique to simultaneously resolve the 2D velocity field in O(100) slices. The technique relies on getting the Reynolds number from the length scale while keeping the velocity small, this provides a characteristic time scale that is sufficiently large to permit full 3D scanning through the measurement volume in a relatively short time. As the vertical velocity component of these late time stratified flows is effectively zero, all components of the deformation tensor are resolved. 3D, time resolved measurements of the vorticity and enstrophy fields associated with stratified rotating flows such as vortex dipoles, monopoles and wakes are presented.

Keywords: PIV, 3D, Scanning, Stratified, CIV

Journal: Journal of Visualization, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 247-255, 2006