Statistical absorption tomography for turbulent flows

A Monte-Carlo method for the tomographic reconstruction of the mean and the RMS of local transmittance of radiation through a correlated turbulent Gau ssian field is derived. Previous statistical reconstruction of turbulent fl ow fields have neglected spatial correlation resulting in very low spatial resolution. The present method provides for very high spatial resolution si nce the spatial correlation of local transmittance is considered. The valid ity of the method is examined using synthetically generated path-integrated transmittance data. If spatial correlations are neglected, the tomographic reconstruction method yielded local transmittances that are substantially different from the synthetic data. If spatial correlation is considered, th e tomographic reconstruction method provided the mean and RMS of local tran smittances within 5% and the local spatial integral length scale within 20% of the synthetic data. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.