Measurements of a high-luminosity flame structure by a shuttered PIV system

It is difficult to measure the velocity distribution inside a high-luminosity flame by using the particle image velocimetry (PIV) system with a double-shutter mode CCD camera. The second raw image of the PIV image pair is usually contaminated by flame emission. The main cause of the problem is an excess exposure time which lets the flame emission overlap the particle image in the second frame. If the flame-contamination problem is not significant, for example in faint flames, digital image processing can improve the image to an acceptable level. Nevertheless, when the PIV technique is applied to high-luminosity flames, the second raw particle image would be contaminated by flame emission. In this paper, incorporating a mechanical shutter in the PIV system with a double-shutter CCD camera is proposed to improve PIV measurements in high-luminosity flames. Measurements in faint, high-luminosity as well as very bright flames were tested. The results show that the present setup can accurately resolve the flow velocity field inside the flame cone, through the flame and in the post flame zone for all the flame conditions analyzed. The velocity distributions and streamline patterns measured by the present equipment are reasonable and meaningful.