Digital direct analysis of a multiexposed photograph in PIV

In Particle Image Velocimetry the analysis of the multi-exposed photographic plate can be carried out either by means of the Young's fringe analysis or by a direct technique. With this second approach the image of each interrogation area, enlarged by a microscope, is recorded by means of a digital image acquisition system. After some preliminary filtering operations the digitized image can be analyzed with numerical tools. In this paper a review of the digital techniques used in the analysis of these images is carried out. Both twodimensional and onedimensional techniques are analyzed and the problems involved in their use are discussed.