Measurement of the velocities of nanoparticles in flowing nanofluids using the zero-crossing laser speckle method

A zero-crossing dynamic speckle method is proposed to determine the velocities of nanoparticles in nanofluids. A Gaussian laser beam is used to illuminate nanofluids in a pipe, and the dynamic speckles are detected by a spatially integrating detector with an aperture. The integrated speckle intensity signal is processed by a computer and the zero-crossing rate is counted. The velocity of the nanoparticles can be determined from its relationship to zero-crossing rate. The results show that the nanoparticles exhibit features of flowing nanofluids, and when the average velocity of the nanofluids is 53.4 mm/s, the average velocity of the nanoparticles is 51.8 ± 5.1 mm/s. (authors)