The proposed state of-the-art stereoscopic PIV equipment will serve as an essential research tool and improved measurement capability because it: a) permits detailed study of the three dimensional velocity field for a variety of jet flow conditions; b) provides more accurate turbulence flow field data as compared to 2D PIV measurements; c) facilitates higher spatial and temporal resolution of the flow field; d) can integrate readily into the existing laboratory infrastructure and hence provide valuable information that can facilitate application-oriented development of flow control technologies; e) facilitates the acquisition of experimental data needed to elucidate fundamental physics and facilitates the development of an experimental database for computations; and f) serves as a shared resource for departments within the university as well as other universities, research organizations, and industry. The acquisition of the stereoscopic PIV system will therefore yield rich fundamental flow physics knowledge leading to transformative research and hence transformative technologies in the field of flow control.
The use of a non-intrusive method such as the Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) system for measurement of turbulence intensities in a wind tunnel has numerous advantages. One of the major usefulness of the PIV system accquired for this project is its suitability in characterizing the flow quality in a low speed wind tunnel. In wind tunnels, one of the issues is the dfficulty in obtaining flow quality information (turbulence intensity, flow uniformity and angularity) over a larger area at any given cross section. The equipment and supports that are in place in the wind tunnel can affect the data collected (in addition to other sources of error). To solve this problem, PIV measurements, which are nonintrusive, are carried out. However, it is known that pulse separation between the Laser pulses plays an important role in especially measuring low turbulence levels. Each different time delay (dt) would produce different turbulence intensities, especially as dt has to be large to capture the low turbulence intensities. In this project, dt is optimized between the random and acceleration error to give highly accurate turbulence intensity measurements. The procedure can be used wherever wind tunnel flow characterization needs to carried out in low speed wind tunnels. The University of Texas - Pan American is a minority institution (Hispanic Serving Institution) serving mostly Hispanic students located in Edinburg, Texas in the Rio Grande Valley (Hidalgo County) in south Texas. The outreach efforts during the course of this project were mainly carried out during the annual Hispanic, Engineering, Science, and Technology (HESTEC) Week is organized by the University of Texas-Pan American. During this week, events were held for educators, students and parents that promote science literacy. The PI showcased his research work in fluid mechanics using the state-of-the-art PIV system acquired through this project. The unique opportunity at HESTEC provided the ideal conditions to also reach out to the underrepresented minority high-school students and provide them the opportunity to learn about cutting-edge fundamental fluids research in the PI's laboratory. The goal was that this experience will encourage them to be engineers and scientists at a later point in their careers.
