Recent Developments in Particle Tracking Diagnostics for Turbulence Research

Abstract

High-resolution particle imaging techniques have had a large impact in fluid mechanics over the last decades. In this chapter, we concentrate on particle tracking velocimetry in which trajectories of particles are reconstructed from sets of flow visualisation images recorded in high-speed video. We describe some recent advances stemming from our research in the major steps of the technique: camera calibration and particle stereo-matching, particle tracking algorithms, and noiseless estimation of statistical quantities. Note that this does not intend to be an inclusive review of the literature on the topic. Applications range from the understanding of single phase turbulence to the dispersion of inertial particles.