A NOVEL VIDEO TECHNIQUE FOR VISUALIZING FLOW STRUCTURES IN CARDIOVASCULAR MODELS

We describe a video system that produces good quality images of partic le trajectories in seeded fluid flows. The operation of a liquid cryst al optical shutter and a modified charge-coupled device (CCD) camera w ere synchronized to generate images of particle trajectories which wer e stored in a framegrabber before being transferred to S-VHS tape. The camera system is particularly appropriate for visualizing transient o r unsteady flows in models of the cardiovascular system as the integra tion time may be varied to produce particle trajectories of variable l ength.