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

TL;DR

This paper presents educational experiments using Particle Image Velocimetry in a small water tunnel to visualize and measure fundamental fluid dynamics phenomena, aiding teaching at high school and university levels.

Contribution

It introduces a tabletop water tunnel setup with PIV for visualizing and measuring key fluid dynamic phenomena, demonstrating its educational effectiveness.

Findings

Good agreement with theoretical expectations

Effective visualization of vortex shedding and circulation

Educational value for teaching fluid dynamics

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.