Color tomography for 3-D fluid density inversion
- Univ. of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA (United States). Scripps Institution of Oceanography
The optical method of imaging fluid surface gradient is extended to measure multiple fluid interfaces of refractive index changes. The density of a fluid is a function of the fluid`s refractive index. This method may be applied to the study of such flows that are associated with density changes caused by either compressibility, thermal effects, or mixing of fluids of different densities. A lens is used to transform the rays of an optical light source into a series of colored parallel light beams by passing the light through a slide of 2-D color patterns at the focal planes of the lens. This system of parallel light beams is used to illuminate through the test section of a fluid volume. The out-going rays of refracted light of different directions are instantaneous recorded by multiple cameras located far away from the test section. The different camera captures different light rays. The observed colors of rays provide measurements of the total volume refraction of the rays. According to ray tracing equations, the images of total fluid volume refraction are then used to estimate the fluid isopycnal surfaces. The color tomography proposed here inverts fluid isopycnal surfaces through the measurements of integrated volume refraction rather than the traditional radiological tomography which studies the body properties through measuring the absorption in the ray-path, or seismic and ocean acoustic tomography which inverts the properties of earth or ocean water body by detecting the travel times of rays between sources and receivers.
- OSTI ID:
- 220749
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-950793--; ISBN 0-8194-1905-2
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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