Industrial applications of image based measurement techniques in aerodynamics – Progress and future needs

Abstract

Image based measurement techniques have gained access to many industrial applications, firstly due to the remarkable progress made at the development of hardware such as lasers, video cameras, computers, storage capacity etc., but secondly due to the developments made with evaluation algorithms, computer vision, pattern recognition etc. in the past decade. Examples of the application of image based measurement techniques (Particle Image Velocimetry, Pressure Sensitive Paint, Temperature Sensitive Paint, Model Deformation Measurement Techniques, Density Measurement Techniques, Acoustic Measurement Techniques) as performed by DLR in industrial environments, such as large wind tunnels will be presented. Next, typical problems appearing, when bringing such measurement techniques out of the research laboratory into the rough industrial environment will be discussed. The multi-disciplinary cooperation in major international research projects with partners ranging from the operating team of the facility to the end-user of the experimental data such as the CFD community, who uses them for code validation, requires special procedures and standards for the different processes involved. The developers of experimental methods and image processing methods, mainly coming from university or research laboratories shall be made familiar with the needs arising at the application of such methods in industrial environments, in order that they can eventually consider them already during the development process, having rather scientific objectives, in order to allow easier cooperation with industrial partners and faster transfer of new methods to industrial facilities later on.