Investigations of the measurement accuracy of stereo particle image velocimetry

With a stereo PIV system, in order to perform reliable measurements of the three velocity components in liquid flow, it is mandatory to minimise the errors made in determining the 2D displacement vectors and the viewing direction of each of the two cameras. We present a method for determining the viewing direction in the angular displacement stereo system by means of a digital imaging procedure such that the direct measurement of geometrical parameters of the set-up is avoided. This makes the method particularly useful for measurements through the transparent walls confining the liquid flow. A third order polynomial used for calibrating the stereo system is shown to provide more accurate results than imaging functions of lower order. Further improvement of the evaluation accuracy is obtained with the application of an artificial neuronal network, but at the expense of considerably increasing the computation time. A comparison of the evaluation results obtained with the operational procedures presented in this paper with those generated with another method that is applicable to liquid flow (Soloff et al. 1997) shows, that the present procedures can be considered as a viable alternative to existing methods.