A PARALLEL DIGITAL PROCESSOR SYSTEM FOR PARTICLE IMAGE VELOCIMETRY

A high-speed, high-resolution, digital computer-based interrogation sy stem for particle image velocimetry (PIV) has been developed. It utili zes advanced parallel array processing technology to achieve computati onal speeds comparable to those of current supercomputers, and high-re solution image acquisition equipment to achieve the data input rates n ecessary for high-speed analysis of PIV images. Advanced cross correla tion techniques are incorporated into the algorithm, which take advant age of the high-speed capabilities and improve the quality of the meas urements. The architecture, algorithms, and performance characteristic s of the system are described.