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Particle Image Velocimetry pp 203–241Cite as

PIV Uncertainty and Measurement Accuracy

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Abstract

The chapter starts with an overview of common PIV measurement error contributions. Then important parameters for the optimization of PIV measurements are discussed and the significance of the dynamic velocity range and dynamic spatial range is outlined. Thereafter, the concept of measurement error is introduced and the error propagation essentials are discussed. The sensitivity of the measurement uncertainty on the particle image size, particle image density, background noise, particle image shift, out-of-plane motion, light-sheet mismatch, displacement gradients and streamline curvature is discussed in detail. The chapter finishes with strategies to optimize PIV uncertainties and outlines the main implications of the uncertainty analysis for multi-camera recording systems. The aim of this chapter is to familiarize the reader with various sources and sensitivities of PIV measurement uncertainty which will be instructive for optimizing PIV measurements in practice.

An overview of the Digital Content to this chapter can be found at [DC6.1].

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Sometimes the term accuracy is also used to describe the actual closeness of the measurement to the true value. In this work accuracy is used to quantify only the systematic deviation between the measured value and the true value. An alternative term is the trueness.

  2. 2.

    The term peak-locking or pixel-locking is a frequently used term to describe a displacement bias error that has a periodic pattern on pixel intervals. Mostly it is caused by particle images that are too small.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Aerodynamik und Strömungstechnik, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR), Göttingen, Germany

    Markus Raffel & Jürgen Kompenhans

  2. Institut für Antriebstechnik, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR), Köln, Germany

    Christian E. Willert

  3. Department of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Fulvio Scarano

  4. Institut für Strömungsmechanik und Aerodynamik, Universität der Bundeswehr München, Neubiberg, Germany

    Christian J. Kähler

  5. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Birck Nanotech Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, USA

    Steven T. Wereley

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  1. Markus Raffel
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Raffel, M., Willert, C.E., Scarano, F., Kähler, C.J., Wereley, S.T., Kompenhans, J. (2018). PIV Uncertainty and Measurement Accuracy. In: Particle Image Velocimetry. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-68852-7_6

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