High speed shadowgraphy for the study of liquid drops

Abstract

The principles of shadowgraph photography are described in this work together with a few examples of its utilisation in the study of free liquid surfaces. Shadowgraph photography is utilized in combination with high speed imaging and image analysis to study the behaviour of sub-millimetre and millimetre-sized droplets and jets. The temporal and physical scales of these examples cover operational ranges of industrial, commercial, and academic interest. The aim of this work is to summarize the necessary optical and illumination properties to design an appropriate shadowgraph imaging system.