Summary: TRACKING BUBBLES IN HIGH­SPEED IMAGE SEQUENCES
DA­CHUAN CHENG AND HANS BURKHARDT
Institute of Pattern Recognition and Image Processing,
Department of Computer Science, Freiburg University, D­79110 Freiburg, Germany
ABSTRACT
In this study, we develop a semi­automatic system for tracking bubbles in image sequences. The
vapor bubbles are generated on the surface of a heated tube in a boiling liquid. The images are
taken with a speed of one thousand images per second via a high speed digital video camera. Due
to some physical properties such as the testing liquid, the surface structure of the heated tube,
temperature, and pressure, there are many kinds of reflections on the bubble images. Our system is
robust against these reflections and is able to track the vapor bubble boundaries in an image
sequence based on a manual selection of the bubble as a primitive in the first image and under the
assumption of a circular shape. After the tracking, the bubble volumes changing in the bubble
formation, and the bubble speed after the departure from the nucleation site can be determined.
These parameters are important in exploring a heat transfer relationship between a given liquid and
a heated tube.
1. INTRODUCTION
The aim of our cooperating research group (Gorenflo et al. 2000, Luke 2000) is to explore the
heat transfer relationship between given liquids and heated tubes with different size, styles, and
surface structure. The major goal is to explore an efficient heat transfer. The boiling process is

Source: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Institut für Informatik,, Lehrstuhls für Mustererkennung und Bildverarbeitung

Collections: Computer Technologies and Information Sciences