PIV and LIF Measurements of Flow in the Vicinity of Moving Interface

The interface between overlaid fluids can become unstable when the fluids are excited vertically. Ito et al. (1999) studied a combined excitation problem where the fluids were excited vertically in a stationary cylinder while the interface motion was restricted by the mobility of the fluid-fluid-wall contact line. They found that the contact line exhibits stick-slip-like motion for the combination of fluids and wall material used in their experiments (water and kerosene oil in a cylinder made of acrylic resin). The flow above and beneath the interface is visualized by adding small particles. A vertical, diametral cross section of the test section is illuminated by a 509-nm Argon laser sheet. The experimental data presented in this paper were taken using ‘EXPANCEL’ particle tracer with a typical diameter of 10 µm, added to the water above and beneath the interface. Pictures are taken by a high-speed CCD camera at a rate of 120 frame/s. Each uninterlaced (120 frame/s) video frame is divided into 640 × 480 pixels for image processing. The fluid velocity is obtained for each 2.95 mm × 2.95 mm area by using the PIV technique. Visualization studies have revealed that the nonuniform velocity distribution above and below the interface extends to a much greater depth than the wave amplitude. Streamlines were taken by using Rhodamine-B fluorescent dye which was added to water beneath the interface and excited with an Ar laser fan beam, with a CCD camera.