A procedure for turbulent structure convection velocity measurements usingtime-correlated images

This paper describes the development of a technique used to determine the c onvection velocity of large-scale turbulent structures captured in lime-cor related images. The crux of the procedure centers on a cross-correlation ro utine that is used to determine the convection distance of eddies during th e time separation between the image acquisitions. The convection velocity i s then estimated as the convection distance divided by the time separation of the image-pair. This cross-correlation routine is capable of analyzing v ery large data sets in a completely automated manner, thereby improving the accuracy and objectivity of the results over manual or partially automated procedures. Guidelines for optimizing the experimental and computational c omponents of this technique are also presented.