Precision of FLEET Velocimetry using High-Speed CMOS Camera Systems Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • 2015, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Femtosecond laser electronic excitation tagging (FLEET) is an optical measurement technique that permits quantitative velocimetry of unseeded air or nitrogen using a single laser and a single camera. In this paper, we seek to determine the fundamental precision of the FLEET technique using high-speed complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) cameras. Also, we compare the performance of several different high-speed CMOS camera systems for acquiring FLEET velocimetry data in air and nitrogen free-jet flows. The precision was defined as the standard deviation of a set of several hundred single-shot velocity measurements. Methods of enhancing the precision of the measurement were explored such as digital binning (similar in concept to on-sensor binning, but done in post-processing), row-wise digital binning of the signal in adjacent pixels and increasing the time delay between successive exposures. These techniques generally improved precision; however, binning provided the greatest improvement to the un-intensified camera systems which had low signal-to-noise ratio. When binning row-wise by 8 pixels (about the thickness of the tagged region) and using an inter-frame delay of 65 s, precisions of 0.5 m/s in air and 0.2 m/s in nitrogen were achieved. The camera comparison included a pco.dimax HD, a LaVision Imager scientific CMOS (sCMOS) and a Photron FASTCAM SA-X2, along with a two-stage LaVision HighSpeed IRO intensifier. Excluding the LaVision Imager sCMOS, the cameras were tested with and without intensification and with both short and long inter-frame delays. Use of intensification and longer inter-frame delay generally improved precision. Overall, the Photron FASTCAM SA-X2 exhibited the best performance in terms of greatest precision and highest signal-to-noise ratio primarily because it had the largest pixels.

name of conference

  • 31st AIAA Aerodynamic Measurement Technology and Ground Testing Conference

published proceedings

  • 31st AIAA Aerodynamic Measurement Technology and Ground Testing Conference

author list (cited authors)

  • Peters, C. J., Danehy, P. M., Bathel, B. F., Jiang, N., Calvert, N., & Miles, R. B.

citation count

  • 18

complete list of authors

  • Peters, Christopher J||Danehy, Paul M||Bathel, Brett F||Jiang, Naibo||Calvert, Nathan||Miles, Richard B

publication date

  • June 2015