3-D Airflow Measurement Using Smoke Particles

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Kaga, A. | Yamaguchi, K. | Inoue, Y. | Kondo, A.

Affiliations: Department of Environmental Engineering, Osaka University, 2-1 Yamadaoka, Suita-shi, Osaka, 565-0871 Japan

Abstract: A new 3-D PIV-technique that is applicable to low velocity airflow in a real space such as indoor airflow is proposed, and its performance is inspected through a simulation and an experimental application. In this technique, two parallel planes separated by short distance are illuminated by a pair of laser light sheets of different colors. The visualized images are separated with optical filters, and recorded on VTRs. The 2-D tracer pattern movement on visualized planes is tracked with pattern tracking and the movement normal to the visualized planes is calculated from the difference of tracer concentration between two planes. The simulation result showed that the algorithm proposed here can calculate 3-D velocity field adequately, but the experimental result showed that the luminous intensity difference between two visualized planes became the main source of experimental errors.

Keywords: PIV, indoor airflow, pattern tracking, simulation, wind tunnel experiment

Journal: Journal of Visualization, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 303-312, 1998