Digital image processing in flow visualization

Flow visualization results from the interactions between light and matter. Classical methods such as shadowgraphy, schlieren photography, and interferometry visualize variation in the index of refraction induced by changes in density, pressure, or temperature. Nonuniformities of these physical observables modify the phase of optical waves, rendered visible by free-space propagation (shadowgraphy), optical processing in the back focal plane of a lens (schlieren photography), or interference with a reference wave (interferometry). The classical methods visualize variations of the index of refraction or spatial derivatives thereof integrated along the light path through the fluid. Three-dimensional space is projected onto a plane with the corresponding reduction in degrees of freedom. Except for axial symmetric or two-dimensional flows, spatial structures cannot be recovered from a single image