3-Component acceleration field measurement by dual-time stereoscopic particle image velocimetry

In this article, a multiplane stereo-particle image velocimetry (PIV) system was implemented and validated to measure the three-component acceleration field in a plane of turbulent flows. The employed technique relies on the use of two stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (SPIV) systems to measure pairs of velocity fields superimposed in space but shifted in time. The time delay between the two velocity fields enables the implementation of a finite difference scheme to compute temporal derivatives. The use of two synchronized SPIV systems allows us to overcome the limited acquisition rate of PIV systems when dealing with highly turbulent flows. Moreover, a methodology based on the analysis of the spectral error distribution is described here to determine the optimal time delay to compute time derivatives. The present dual-time SPIV arrangement and the proposed analysis method are applied to measure three-component acceleration fields in a cross section of a subsonic plane turbulent mixing layer.