Classroom-Safe Particle Image Velocimetry

Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) is a powerful fluid dynamic technique that quantitatively measures a flow field. Typical requirements to run PIV are (1) a bright light sheet (often generated using a laser and cylindrical lenses), (2) seeding particles, and (3) a camera. In order to bring this tool to education, proper safety training and environmentally harmless particles are required.

In this talk, we present a classroom-safe PIV setup that does not require a strong light source by leveraging a water surface to confine particles to a 2D surface. Various particles commonly found in a kitchen are used (ground basil and coffee grounds). In addition to being environmentally harmless, these particles are neutrally buoyant, making them suitable for our experimental setup.

As a demonstration of this tool, a flow field involving important vortical features in unsteady airfoil motion is generated by motions of a plastic card (i.e., credit card). We perform PIV analysis of such flow fields with the properly chosen seeding particles.