USE OF VIDEO-BASED PARTICLE IMAGE VELOCIMETRY TECHNIQUE FOR STUDIES OF VELOCITY-FIELDS IN A WATER HEAT-STORAGE VESSEL

A video-based Particle Image Velocimetry technique has been developed. The technique is particularly suitable far measurement of small veloc ities, below 3 cm/s. It has proved to be useful for the documentation of non-stationary velocity fields in a scaled-down model of a water he at storage vessel. An ordinary video camera is used to record the in-p lane movements of particles in a light sheet in seeded water. The hard ware used, the experimental method and the accuracy of the method are discussed. The use of two commercially available software packages (NI H-Image and IGOR) for the analyses is described. Examples of velocity fields are presented, showing that the measuring technique can be used for studies of mixing near the inlet of the storage vessel and exchan ge of water between the boundary layer and the core.