Alginate flow seeding microparticles for use in Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV)

Appropriate flow seeding is particularly critical with in the particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique that indirectly measures the displacement from the particle velocity instead of fluid velocity. Particles that follow the flow accordingly and scatter enough light must be used in order to obtain accurate velocity field of the flow. Therefore, particles should be as small as possible in order to ensure good tracking of the fluid motion and they should not be too small, since they will not scatter enough light. The microparticles can be obtained from approximately 20 nm to around 50 ?m in a controlled manner with ability increasing their light scattering behavior by fluorescein imbedding so that they gain the light scattering property. Alginate microparticles as flow seeding fulfill all the requirements that are recommended for the velocity measurements in PIV. These spherical microparticles offer the advantage of being environmentally friendly, excellent seeding properties and very simple production ability. They can be obtained as small as possible while increasing its scattering behavior by adding fluorescein into them. Additionally, they can be perfectly used as flow seeding in gas and several liquid flows with matching densities