Educational experiments with Particle Image Velocimetry in a small Prandtl water tunnel

Abstract

A small water tunnel was designed as a table top experiment to visualize and measure basic fluid dynamic phenomena. The visualization of the flow by a laser light sheet and the measurement with Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) proves to be very instructive for teaching high school and university students. Three basic fluid dynamic experiments are reported: the determination of the vortex shedding frequency of a cylinder (von-Karman vortex street), the measurement of circulation around a flat plate and the lift coefficient of a NACA profile. All three experiments show good agreement with theoretical expectations.