Innovation for the road.
PIV—an optical technique used in the study of fluid dynamics—is used to obtain instantaneous velocity measurements and related properties in fluids. The fluid flow can be quite fast and laser pulses are used in PIV systems to avoid blurred images because they can freeze any motion.
In addition, laser light can be uniquely focused into a thin enough light sheet so that only particles in that plane are imaged. Otherwise the scattered light from particles in other planes would make this measurement impossible.
PIV systems are designed to be compact, easy-to-operate and convenient to move from one experiment to another. PIV is used to detect many types of flow problems. The light inside the apparatus is synchronized with the camera to capture images frame by frame and back calculate the flow of particles in the stream of fluid.
This technique comes especially handy in vehicle design, where understanding the dynamics of an automobile are critical. Knowing this information, automobile makers are better able to design components of an automobile. ESI’s systems are enabling today’s innovations on the road.