Wednesday, September 24, 2008
2008 R&D 100 Winner
Until now, particle velocimetry techniques have been limited to measurement of flow in 2D sheets because there has not been an effective way to distinguish tracer particles in different planes in a fluid. Thus, 3D flows must be simplified to 2D problems or the real 3D nature of flows must be investigated one plane at a time. Moreover, instantaneous measurements of flow properties in a 3D volume are not possible with this method. These limiting constraints have been overcome with the Volumetric 3-Component Velocimetry (V3V) System, which provides time-resolved measurements of complex flows at unprecedented 3D spatial scales using 3D imaging technology. Developed at TSI Inc., Shoreview, Minn., the V3V System non-intrusively measures the instantaneous fluid flow velocity field in a 3D volumetric region at rates of 7.5 measurements/sec. It achieves this by transmitting laser pulses through a series of adjustable optics to the measurement region, allowing customization of the size and shape of the measurement volume. By viewing and imaging through multiple apertures, triangles are captured for each particle imaged, and the 3D particle positions are determined from these triangles. The final result is an instantaneous measurement of the fluid velocity field at tens of thousands of individual points within the measurement volume.
Technology
Particle velocimetry technique
Developers
TSI, Inc.
California Institute of Technology
