Stereoscopic Particle Image Velocimetry Analysis of Healthy and Emphysemic Alveolar Sac Models

2011 ◽  
Vol 133 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily J. Berg ◽  
Risa J. Robinson

Emphysema is a progressive lung disease that involves permanent destruction of the alveolar walls. Fluid mechanics in the pulmonary region and how they are altered with the presence of emphysema are not well understood. Much of our understanding of the flow fields occurring in the healthy pulmonary region is based on idealized geometries, and little attention has been paid to emphysemic geometries. The goal of this research was to utilize actual replica lung geometries to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms that govern fluid motion and particle transport in the most distal regions of the lung and to compare the differences that exist between healthy and emphysematous lungs. Excised human healthy and emphysemic lungs were cast, scanned, graphically reconstructed, and used to fabricate clear, hollow, compliant models. Three dimensional flow fields were obtained experimentally using stereoscopic particle image velocimetry techniques for healthy and emphysematic breathing conditions. Measured alveolar velocities ranged over two orders of magnitude from the duct entrance to the wall in both models. Recirculating flow was not found in either the healthy or the emphysematic model, while the average flow rate was three times larger in emphysema as compared to healthy. Diffusion dominated particle flow, which is characteristic in the pulmonary region of the healthy lung, was not seen for emphysema, except for very small particle sizes. Flow speeds dissipated quickly in the healthy lung (60% reduction in 0.25 mm) but not in the emphysematic lung (only 8% reduction 0.25 mm). Alveolar ventilation per unit volume was 30% smaller in emphysema compared to healthy. Destruction of the alveolar walls in emphysema leads to significant differences in flow fields between the healthy and emphysemic lung. Models based on replica geometry provide a useful means to quantify these differences and could ultimately improve our understanding of disease progression.

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (77) ◽  
pp. 3378-3386 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard J. Bomphrey ◽  
Per Henningsson ◽  
Dirk Michaelis ◽  
David Hollis

Aerodynamic structures generated by animals in flight are unstable and complex. Recent progress in quantitative flow visualization has advanced our understanding of animal aerodynamics, but measurements have hitherto been limited to flow velocities at a plane through the wake. We applied an emergent, high-speed, volumetric fluid imaging technique (tomographic particle image velocimetry) to examine segments of the wake of desert locusts, capturing fully three-dimensional instantaneous flow fields. We used those flow fields to characterize the aerodynamic footprint in unprecedented detail and revealed previously unseen wake elements that would have gone undetected by two-dimensional or stereo-imaging technology. Vortex iso-surface topographies show the spatio-temporal signature of aerodynamic force generation manifest in the wake of locusts, and expose the extent to which animal wakes can deform, potentially leading to unreliable calculations of lift and thrust when using conventional diagnostic methods. We discuss implications for experimental design and analysis as volumetric flow imaging becomes more widespread.


2008 ◽  
Vol 598 ◽  
pp. 141-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. GANAPATHISUBRAMANI ◽  
K. LAKSHMINARASIMHAN ◽  
N. T. CLEMENS

Cinematographic stereoscopic particle image velocimetry measurements were performed to resolve small and intermediate scales in the far field of an axisymmetric co-flowing jet. Measurements were performed in a plane normal to the axis of the jet and the time-resolved measurement was converted to quasi-instantaneous three-dimensional data by using Taylor's hypothesis. The quasi-instantaneous three-dimensional data enabled computation of all nine components of the velocity gradient tensor over a volume. The results based on statistical analysis of the data, including computation of joint p.d.f.s and conditional p.d.f.s of the principal strain rates, vorticity and dissipation, are all in agreement with previous numerical and experimental studies, which validates the quality of the quasi-instantaneous data. Instantaneous iso-surfaces of the principal intermediate strain rate (β) show that sheet-forming strain fields (i.e. β > 0) are themselves organized in the form of sheets, whereas line-forming strain fields (β < 0) are organized into smaller spotty structures (not lines). Iso-surfaces of swirling strength (a vortex identification parameter) in the volume reveal that, in agreement with direct numerical simulation results, the intense vortex structures are in the form of elongated ‘worms’ with characteristic diameter of approximately 10η and characteristic length of 60--100η. Iso-surfaces of intense dissipation show that the most dissipative structures are in the form of sheets and are associated with clusters of vortex tubes. Approximately half of the total dissipation occurs in structures that are generally sheet-like, whereas the other half occurs in broad indistinct structures. The largest length scale of dissipation sheets is of order 60η and the characteristic thickness (in a plane normal to the axis of the sheet) is about 10η. The range of scales between 10η (thickness of dissipation sheets, diameter of vortex tubes) to 60η (size of dissipation sheet or length of vortex tubes) is consistent with the bounds for the dissipation range in the energy and dissipation spectrum as inferred from the three-dimensional model energy spectrum.


Author(s):  
Deb Banerjee ◽  
Ahmet Selamet ◽  
Rick Dehner ◽  
Keith Miazgowicz

Abstract Particle Image Velocimetry has become a desirable tool to investigate turbulent flow fields in different engineering applications, including flames, combustion engines, and turbomachinery. The convergence characteristics of turbulent statistics of these flow fields are of prime importance since they help with the number of images (temporally uncorrelated) to be captured in order for the results to converge to a certain tolerance or with the assessment of the uncertainty of the measurements for a given number of images. The present work employs Stereoscopic Particle Image Velocimetry to examine the turbulent flow field at the inlet of an automotive turbocharger compressor without any recirculating channel. Optical measurements were conducted at five different mass flow rates spanning from choke to surge at a corrected rotational speed of 80 krpm. The velocity fields thus obtained were used to analyze the convergence of the mean (first statistical moment) and variance (second statistical moment) at different operating conditions. The convergence of the mean at a particular location in the flow field depends on the local coefficient of variation (COV). The number of required images for the mean to converge to a particular tolerance was also found to follow roughly a linear trend with respect to COV. While the convergence of the variance, on the other hand, did not appear to show any direct dependence on the coefficient of variation, it takes significantly more images than the mean to converge to the same level of tolerance.


2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven P. O’Halloran ◽  
B. Terry Beck ◽  
Mohammad H. Hosni ◽  
Thomas P. Gielda

A stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (PIV) system was used to measure flow within a one-tenth-scale room. The dimensions of the scaled room were 732 × 488 × 274 mm (28.8 × 19.2 × 10.8 in.). The measurements were made under isothermal conditions and water was used as the fluid instead of air. Six equally spaced vertical planes along the length of the room were captured and symmetry was utilized so that measurements were only made on one side of the room. A sample size of 50 pairs of PIV images were collected and averaged to determine average velocity. Turbulent kinetic energy was also calculated from the collected data. The equipment configuration, measurement information and the velocity and turbulent kinetic energy results are presented in this paper. The measurements provide detailed three dimensional velocity profiles that could be used to validate numerical simulations.


Volume 3 ◽  
2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steven P. O’Halloran ◽  
B. Terry Beck ◽  
Mohammad H. Hosni ◽  
Steven J. Eckels

The flow distribution inside of an evaporator is important to fully understand in order to optimize the design of the evaporator. A stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (PIV) system was used to measure single-phase water flow in a Plexiglas model of an automotive-sized evaporator. The evaporator is a “U-shape” type. Flow enters the inlet header and travels through a series of 26 parallel rectangular tubes. The tubes have a width of 15.5-mm, a flow gap (thickness) of 0.9-mm, and a length of 231-mm. The flow then enters the upper header and flows through another series of 26 parallel tubes to the outlet header. PIV measurements were only made within the headers due to the small size of the tubes, however detailed results were observed. In addition to the single-phase experimental results, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were conducted using the commercially available software Fluent, and the results compare well to the experimental results. Further work was conducted by injecting nitrogen into the flow to obtain two-phase flow under adiabatic conditions. Due to high vapor volume fractions, PIV could not be used for flow measurement, but a volume collection method was used to measure the flow of water through each tube. Significantly different flow distributions were observed at different inlet volume fractions of nitrogen and further investigation is underway.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document