Particle image velocimetry has long been recognised as a powerful diagnostic technique for flow visualisation, characterisation or measurement in both air and water
Oxford Lasers says that, although it offers a choice of five different laser types in its VisiVector range of particle image velocimetry (PIV) systems, it is the HSI series of high power diode lasers that offers the most cost effective tool for PIV. Low cost, small size, reliable operation and low power consumption make it an attractive alternative to conventional sources.
Its unique design makes the HSI diode laser range ideally suited for water flow visualisation and time-resolved PIV, says Oxford Lasers.
The system operates by using a laser light sheet to illuminate particles or droplets entrained in a flow.
Pairs of images are captured using a high-speed digital camera, then specially designed software computes how far the particles have moved between the two images and a velocity map is generated.
All Oxford Lasers Particle Image Velocimetry systems use VidPIV software for processing the pairs of images.
VidPIV is a fast-evolving, visual programming language for PIV, combining complete control of the analysis with next-generation algorithms and ease of use.
Operation of the software is completely user friendly.
It can be applied in any logical order, can be probed instantly at every stage and can even use different analysis techniques on the same images at the same time.
Particle image velocimetry has long been recognised as a powerful diagnostic technique for flow visualisation, characterisation or measurement in both air and water.
It can be used to provide a unique insight into the nature of flows in such applications as combustion/fuel sprays, wind tunnel/aircraft design, agricultural sprays, paint sprays, aerosols for drug delivery /pharmaceutical devices and many others.
