Abstract

The importance of the wake–free-surface interaction in the detection, classification, and tracking of submerged objects has led to the development of a simple but effective free-surface visualization technique for use in controlled water-tunnel experiments. An experiment was performed to verify the effectiveness and the applicability of this method. Digital images of a spatially varying sinusoidal grid were acquired as seen through the disturbance pattern on the water surface. Image-processing techniques were used to perform phase demodulation of the distorted image. The resulting image details the outline, location, and extent of the surface deformation in a gray-scale format. Optimal digital filter specifications and spatial grid frequencies were determined experimentally for various surface-flow conditions.

© 1995 Optical Society of America

Digital image processing of flow visualization photographs

Lambertus Hesselink and Benjamin S. White
Appl. Opt. 22(10) 1454-1461 (1983)

Visualization of surface figure by the use of Zernike polynomials

Chris J. Evans, Robert E. Parks, Paul J. Sullivan, and John S. Taylor
Appl. Opt. 34(34) 7815-7819 (1995)

Fast blood flow visualization of high-resolution laser speckle imaging data using graphics processing unit

Shusen Liu, Pengcheng Li, and Qingming Luo
Opt. Express 16(19) 14321-14329 (2008)

Three-dimensional flow visualization with picosecond Mie scattering and streak-camera detection

Frederik Ossler, Sara Agrup, and Marcus Aldén
Appl. Opt. 34(3) 537-540 (1995)

Improved quantitative visualization of hypervelocity flow through wavefront estimation based on shadow casting of sinusoidal gratings

Biswajit Medhi, Gopalakrishna M. Hegde, Sai Siva Gorthi, Kalidevapura Jagannath Reddy, Debasish Roy, and Ram Mohan Vasu
Appl. Opt. 55(22) 6060-6071 (2016)