Single-Camera 3-D Particle Tracking Velocimetry Using Liquid Crystal Image Projector

Three-dimensional Particle Tracking Velocimetry (3-D PTV) is one of a useful measurement tools to understand complicated structure of flow. This paper concerns with a system of 3-D PTV based on color image processing using a liquid crystal image projector. The merit of the present system is inexpensive setup and needless of complicated procedure for stereo-pair matching of particles since all the process are carried out by single-camera. The accuracy of color-based PTV depends on the image quality and the optical characteristics of color-light scattering on tracer particles. After detailed discussion on these technical problems is mentioned, two kinds of experimental demonstration are shown by a chamber-inside steady flow and a vortex-shedding flow behind rectangular cylinder.