Quantitative three-dimensional holographic interferometry for flow field analysis

Abstract

Holographic interferometry offers the potential for quantitative, wholefield analysis of three-dimensional compressible flows. The technique is non-intrusive, does not require the introduction of seeding particles, and records the entire flow information within the pulse duration of a Q-switched ruby laser (~30ns). At present, however, holographic interferometry is mainly used qualitatively due to the practical restrictions of data recording, acquisition and processing. To address the potential of holographic flow analysis a prototype multi-channel interferometer has been designed and preliminary wind tunnel results have been obtained. The proposed configuration uses specular illumination which, unlike comparable diffuse systems, does not suffer from fringe localisation and speckle noise. Beam collimation and steering through the flow field is achieved in a single operation by the use of holographic optical elements (HOEs). The resulting design is compact, light efficient, has aberration compensation, and the recorded data are conducive to both tomographic analysis and direct comparison to computational fluid dynamics (CFD) predictions. Holograms have been recorded of simple two-dimensional and axisymmetric compressible flows, to compare the accuracy of holographic density measurements with data from conventional pressure sensors and CFD codes. Data extraction from the holograms, and the elimination of rigid body motion, was achieved using digital Fourier transform fringe analysis. The introduction of phase errors by image processing has been investigated by analysing simulated fringe patterns generated from a combination of experimental amplitude information and computer generated phase data.