Abstract
A Process of 3-D Particle image velocimetry, called here, as '3-D volume PIV' was developed for the full-field measurement of 3-D complex flows. The present method includes the coordinate transformation from image to camera, calibration of camera by a calibrator based on the collinear equation, stereo matching of particles by the approximation of the epipolar lines, accurate calculation of 3-D particle positions, identification of velocity vectors by 3-D cross-correlation equation, removal of error vectors by a statistical method followed by a continuity equation criterior, and finally 3-D animation as the post processing. In principle, as two frame images only are necessary for the single instantaneous analysis 3-D flow field, more effective vectors are obtainable contrary to the previous multi-frame vector algorithm. An Experimental system was also used for the application of the proposed method. Three analog CCD camera and a Halogen lamp illumination were adopted to capture the wake flow behind a bluff obstacle. Among 200 effective particle s in two consecutive frames, 170 vectors were obtained averagely in the present study.