ALGORITHMS FOR FULLY AUTOMATED 3-DIMENSIONAL PARTICLE TRACKING VELOCIMETRY

A three-dimensional Particle Tracking Velocimetry ((3)-D PTV) techniqu e has been developed to provide time resolved, three-dimensional veloc ity field measurements throughout a finite volume. This technique offe rs many advantages for fundamental research in turbulence and applied research in areas such as mixing and combustion. The data acquired in (3)-D PTV is a time sequence of stereo images of flow tracer particles suspended in the fluid. In this paper, the implementation of the tech nique is discussed in detail, as well as the results of an extensive s tatistical investigation of the performance of the algorithms. The tec hnique has been optimized to allow fully automatic processing of long sequences of image pairs in a computationally efficient manner, hereby providing a viable, practical tool for the study of complex flows.