An uncertainty analysis of temperature and velocity measured by stereo liquid-crystal thermometry and velocimetry

Abstract

This paper describes an uncertainty analysis of simultaneous measurement of temperature and three components of the velocity in a planar cross-section of light sheet by stereo liquid-crystal thermometry and velocimetry, using thermo-sensitive liquid-crystal particles and tracer particles as temperature and velocity sensors, respectively. The uncertainty analysis of the measurement is carried out with the artificial stereo-colour-images, which are generated from the numerical simulation data of thermal convection in combination with the experimental colour characteristics of liquid crystals at various viewing angles. The results indicate that the accuracy of the temperature measurement is strongly influenced by the viewing angles, while that of the velocity depends rather weakly on such angles. These results indicate the presence of optimum stereo viewing angles for the measurement of temperature and velocity with high accuracy. It is also suggested that the accuracy of the measurement can be improved by optimizing the number of tracer particles, the pixel diameter of tracers and the intensity of the tracer particles.