Application of digital speckle pattern interferometry for fluid velocimetry in wind tunnel flows

This paper shows the feasibility of using digital speckle pattern interferometry (DSPI) as a fluid velocimetry technique in high speed gaseous flows. The light scattered from an illuminated plane was recorded with a CCD camera at the same time as a uniform reference beam. A fibre optic was used to bring this reference beam from the laser cavity to the CCD camera. The comparison of two subsequent frames gives information about the velocity field. DSPI was applied to a Von Karman street flow set up in a wind tunnel. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements were also obtained for comparison with the information provided by DSPI. A system for increasing the measurement region when using short coherence length lasers is proposed.