Quantitative airflow visualization between shrouded corotating disks

A laser-based, quantitative visualization system was developed for studying a high-speed, rotating-disk flow. This system consists of a high repetition rate copper-vapor laser for illuminating aerosol flow between corotating disks, a high-resolution, high-sensitivity CCD camera, and advanced image processing hardware and software. Improvement in image quality and quantification of the flow images was demonstrated. Results obtained through the image processing algorithm agree quite well with those determined by a laser Doppler anemometer in the same tester under identical operating conditions.