Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

The focus of the proposed research is quantitative imaging of complex, separated flows that occur in a wide range of engineering systems, including marine propellers, gas transport pipelines, wave energy devices and wind turbines. These applications are characterized by highly three-dimensional flows, which present formidable challenges in terms of computational modelling and experimental characterization. *A technique of particle image velocimetry (PIV) has been implemented at the Fluid Mechanics Laboratory at UVic to obtain global, quantitative flow patterns that lead to improved understanding of the fluid flow. Implementation of PIV involves seeding of the flow with tracer particles, acquisition of images of the particles that are illuminated by a pulsed laser, and post-processing of the resultant patterns of velocity vectors.*While this image-based approach provides substantial insight into the flow physics, one of the limitations of the present experimental system is that it is only capable of recording the projection of the velocity vector into the plane of the laser sheet. An increasingly wide range of PIV applications require additional knowledge of the out-of-plane velocity component. One of the most common approaches to recovering the complete set of velocity components involves additional PIV recording from a different viewing direction using an additional camera, which is generally referred to as tomographic PIV.*The requested equipment will include a high-speed digital camera, a laser and tomographic PIV calibration hardware and software. This equipment will significantly enhance the experimental capabilities and expand the range of practical applications of the current research undertaken by the co-applicants. The research that will be enabled by the requested equipment presents significant opportunity for the training of graduate students in various aspects of design of engineering systems as well as in application of the state-of-the-art experimental techniques.