Best Practices for Volume Flow Rate Measurements Using PIV at the Exit of a Turbulent Round Jet

Particle image velocimetry (PIV) is an optical flow measurement technique that is used to measure volume flow rate at the exit of a turbulent, round nozzle. The objective of this thesis is to determine how to best make this measurement. The quality of the measurement is affected by a range of data acquisition parameters and how data are processed. Measurements are made over a range of different flows using the two main types of PIV: Two Component (2C), which uses one camera, and Stereo, which uses two cameras, similar to human eyes. Previous work done for data acquisition and processing of PIV in general is found to apply. Different parameters are tested, evaluated, and discussed. Both 2C PIV and Stereo PIV were found to underestimate flow by approximately 2%