Digitalization and Quantitative Flow Visualization of Surrounding Flow over a Specially-Shaped Column-Frame by Luminescent Mini-Tufts Method

Abstract

The luminescent mini-tufts method is widely used for flow visualization for quantitative field analysis. A set of numerical methods for digitalization of 3D surfaces surrounding flows with luminescent mini-tufts has been developed in this study. The procedure includes digital image pre-processing, mini-tufts recognition, mean field mini-tufts calculation, inclination angle calculation, oscillation area calculation, etc. The model is subjected to a newly proposed digitalization method and realized by in-house code. The time mean angle’s changing mode, along the mini-tuft, are analyzed, which shows that the mini-tuft follows the inflow well. The transient oscillation of mini-tufts is observed as well, which shows that on the middle part of the irregularity cylinder, the flow oscillates more intensively.