Feasibility of particle image velocimetry for low-speed unconventional vapor flows

This work assesses the feasibility of the planar PIV technique to study the characteristics of a siloxane vapor D4. Titanium dioxide (TiO2) seeding particles were used to track the motion around a rotating disk in a low speed flow. Vector fields of natural convection (NC) and a superposition of NC and rotating flow were selected as exemplary cases. The particles were capable of tracing the flow since the calculated Stokes number St is 6.5×10⁻⁵. The quality of the experimental data is assessed by means of particle seeding density and particle image Signal to Noise ratio (S/N). The final results are deemed acceptable for an accurate assessment of the flow field. Rejected outliers are below 2.3% and the relative uncertainties corresponding to the average velocity fields are below 1%.