Particle Image Velocimetry

Spring 2012:    Engineering  Experimentation

 

 

Particle image velocimetry is a method used to obtain the flow field of a fluid.

For the final project in the course ME160: Engineering Experimentation, Michael Sanfelice, Alvin Zhang, and I modified the particle image velocimetry system located in the Cooper Union automotive lab to analyze the flow fields in a chamber.  The system is often used, and is well suited for, analyzing flow in a wind tunnel.  The goal was to transfer the system to look at flow in a new type of container.

 

The motivation for the project came from Professor Delagrammatikas’s work with sleep apnea.  For that work, the professor created a hypoxia chamber that could vary the amount of oxygen that lab mice were exposed to.  In order to ensure that the flows associated with the change in oxygen levels did not disturb the mice, the velocity fields needed to be analyzed.

The following is a modified version of the final presentation given in the class.  It presents the methodology and preliminary results obtained from the modification.