Numerical processing of flow-visualization pictures – measurement of two-dimensional vortex flow

Abstract

A new system has been developed for estimating experimentally some of the principal physical variables of fluid flows, through flow-visualization and image-processing techniques. Distributions of stream function, vorticity and pressure are calculated by this system with reasonable accuracy for two examples of two-dimensional flow: namely unsteady twin-vortex flow behind a circular cylinder accelerated impulsively to constant speed, and Kármán vortices behind a circular cylinder moving at constant speed. A detailed explanation of the image-processing technique and the numerical calculation process is given first, and then some consideration is given to calculated results in these two types of flow. Comparison shows that some results of the unsteady twin-vortex experiment coincide well with those of previously published experimental investigations and theoretical calculations. Errors introduced at each stage of this system are estimated in some detail.