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PIV optimization for the study of turbulent flow using spectral analysis

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2004 Meas. Sci. Technol. 15 1046

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INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS PUBLISHING MEASUREMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Meas. Sci. Technol. 15 (2004) 10461058 PII: S0957-0233(04)71160-1

PIV optimization for the study of

turbulent flow using spectral analysis
J M Foucaut, J Carlier and M Stanislas
Ecole Centrale de Lille, LML URA 8107, BP 48, Cite Scientifique,
F59651 Villeneuve dAscq Cedex, France
E-mail: jean-marc.foucaut@ec-lille.fr and stanislas@ec-lille.fr

Received 29 October 2003

Published 13 May 2004
Online at stacks.iop.org/MST/15/1046
DOI: 10.1088/0957-0233/15/6/003

Abstract
Particle image velocimetry (PIV) is a measurement technique which is well
adapted to the study of the structure of turbulent flows, as it allows us to
obtain quantitative information on the spatial structure of the velocity field.
This contribution presents an experimental approach to characterize the
measurement noise of a PIV system and the spatial response of such a
method. This approach is based on a specific spectral analysis of the
velocity vector field deduced from several PIV experiments. This study was
done in two steps. The first step was to measure the noise level of PIV and
to determine a model for the PIV transfer function from a series of
displacement fields measured in a quiet liquid. This model shows the effect
of the interrogation window size and introduces a spectral noise density
which is constant for a given recording set-up. The second step was to
compute spectra from velocity fields obtained in a turbulent boundary layer
in a plane parallel to the wall. These spectra show that PIV behaves as a
band pass filter. This series of experiments allows us to build a model for the
prediction of the PIV spectrum knowing the real one. This model confirms
that the PIV noise is white. It allows us to optimize the interrogation
window size in order to obtain the best compromise between the spectral
response and the spatial resolution. The rms value of the noise can be
estimated from the noise density, allowing us to quantify the measurement
accuracy. The improvement of sub-pixel window shift is also discussed,
leading to a small decrease in the noise level. An analysis is proposed to
identify the main sources of noise: particles cut by the border of the
interrogation window, isolated particles, etc.
Keywords: PIV, spectrum, measurement noise, transfer function

Nomenclature kmin minimum wave number for the agreement between

PIV and HWA measurement
kmax maximum wave number for the agreement between
E11 velocity spectrum of u component PIV and HWA measurement
E22 velocity spectrum of v component M magnification
E11PIV velocity spectrum measured by PIV u velocity component along x
E11HWA velocity spectrum measured by HWA umeas measured velocity
Enoise noise level in Fourier space v velocity component along y
f# lens aperture W estimation of the out-of-plane component
k wave number Wo maximum optical spatial frequency
kc PIV cut-off wave number x1, y1 particle location at the first exposure

0957-0233/04/061046+13$30.00 2004 IOP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UK 1046


x2, y2 particle location at the second exposure
X, Y interrogation window (IW) size
z0 laser sheet thickness

x,
y spatial resolution

t PIV delay
laser wavelength
u rms value of the noise in the x direction
v rms value of the noise in the y direction
noise parameter
1 noise parameter in the x direction
2 noise parameter in the y direction
1. Introduction
The use of particle image velocimetry (PIV) is now
widespread for the measurement of spatial phenomena in
flows (Stanislas et al 1998). In PIV, the largest scales of
the flow which are accessible are limited by the field size.
The smallest scales are also not captured due to the filtering
effect of the interrogation window. However, the use of
PIV to understand turbulence is still a domain of research
which offers great possibility of progress. During the last
ten years, the PIV method has undergone a strong evolution.
This revolution concerns pre-processing, accuracy, spatial
resolution and noise (Lourenco and Krothapalli 2000), as well
as post-processing (Raffel et al 1998), with tools such as
double spatial correlations, pattern recognition and proper
orthogonal decomposition (Carlier et al 2000). But what is
the spatial frequency measured by means of the PIV system?
What is the transfer function of PIV? What is the effect of
the measurement noise on the turbulence spectra? These are
several points which have not been deeply investigated and
will be addressed in the present contribution.
In the study of turbulence, the flow characterization by
means of a spectral analysis is a useful tool to determine the
energy contained at each turbulent scale. The standard method
to do so is to put a hot wire in the flow and to compute the
power spectrum from the recorded signal. This method gives
the temporal spectrum and needs a Taylor hypothesis, based
on local isotropy of turbulence, to determine the spatial one
(Hinze 1975). One advantage of PIV as compared to single-
point measurement techniques is to give access directly to the
spatial spectrum. Westerweel et al (1993) were the first to
compare power spectra from PIV measurements in pipe flows
and from DNS results. They showed that the PIV spectrum
is in agreement with the DNS up to a cut-off wave number.
The value of this cut-off wave number depends on the signal-
to-noise ratio (SNR) which, for turbulent flows, is the ratio
between the rms values of fluctuations and the measurement
noise. If, due to the noise, the SNR decreases, the cut-off
wave number decreases. Later, Westerweel et al (1997),
using experiments of grid-generated turbulence, showed the
improvement brought by discrete image shifting on the power
spectra computed from digital PIV. They did a theoretical study
of the noise reduction due to image shifting as a function of
turbulence intensity. They compared power spectra with and
without image shifting to validate the theoretical study. It was
shown that the noise level in the Fourier space can be decreased
by an order of magnitude when the image shifting technique
is used.
PIV optimization for the study of turbulent flow using spectral analysis
Without looking directly at the spectrum, Willert and
Gharib (1991) have discussed the low-pass filtering effect of
PIV, due to the averaging over the interrogation windows (IW).
They showed that the spatial cut-off wavelength is twice the
window size according to the Nyquist criterion. They deduced
these results from a spatial wavelength response which looks
like an unsigned sinc function. Recently, Lourenco and
Krothapalli (2000) introduced the averaging effect of PIV by

t2
x2
x
2 x
1 t1 u
dt x u
dx
u
meas = = 1 (1)

t
t x
where x1 and x2 are the successive locations of the particles
being moved during the PIV delay
t. The spatial increment
x should be the dynamic range of the particle motion.
Equation (1) is in agreement with the Willert and Gharib result,
which explains that the curvature of the particle trajectory
between two successive exposures is lost by PIV. The main
consequence is that the measured velocity is filtered. Lourenco
and Krothapalli (2000) were the first to introduce a sinc
function which is the Fourier transform of a gate function
of length x, in order to take into account the filtering
effect due to the truncation embedded in the PIV analysis.
This sinc function is obtained by using the Fourier function
u = exp(ikx) which allows us to deduce the transfer function
T = uumeas
real
= sin(kx/2)
kx/2
. This transfer function corresponds to
the low-pass filtering effect of PIV which is one of the main
limitations of this technique. The cut-off wave number is then
of the order of 1/x.
Guichard et al (1998) generated synthetic images from
DNS results. They compared spectra from DNS and PIV
analysis. They also evidenced the low-pass filtering effect due
to the PIV method. But they could not evidence the evolution
of the cut-off frequency with the inverse of the IW size. The
obtained evolution was affected by the fact that the noise
level increases when the window size decreases and modifies
the cut-off frequency. Moreover, they observed that the PIV
spectrum is in poorer agreement with the DNS spectrum when
the window size decreases. Finally they had some difficulty
coming to a conclusion on the ability of PIV to measure a
spectrum with good accuracy. In the present contribution, a
comparison of PIV and hot wire anemometry (HWA) spectra
will be performed.
As observed by Guichard et al (1998), the measurement
noise due to the complete PIV chain is an important element
to characterize the PIV spectral response. Allano et al (1998)
explain that the noise origins can be classified into four
categories: physical (light sheet profile, particle optical and
dynamical characteristics), specificity of the flow (velocity
gradient, out-of-plane motion, wall reflection, seeding
homogeneity, etc), instrumental (camera and digitizer),
analysis method (peak fitting, algorithm). Using the
Europiv SIG algorithm (Lecordier and Westerweel 2004),
Foucaut et al (2004) tested part of these noise sources
by computing bias and rms errors in the case of sub-
pixel displacement. They obtained a series of conclusions
which will be used in this contribution. Willert and Gharib
(1991) also studied the noise with a series of images
obtained by recording a cloud of particles. From the rms
value of the displacement, they studied the effect of the
seeding density (from 6 103 up to 7.3 102 particles
1047
J M Foucaut et al
per pixel) and of the displacement between both exposures
(from 0.05 to 10 pixels). They proposed that the noise could
be essentially due to the particle images which are truncated
by the edge of the interrogation window, to the particle density
in the analysis area and to the unpaired particle images. Raffel
et al (1998) give the evolution of the noise as a function of
the particle image diameter, using a Monte Carlo simulation
of synthetic images. Like Willert and Gharib (1991) and
Westerweel et al (1997), they used a three-point Gaussian-
peak fit. They show that an optimum diameter of the order
of 2.2 pixels can be found for cross-correlation and of 1.6
pixels for auto-correlation. When the window size or the
number of pairs of particle images in the window decreases,
the noise increases. When the diameter of the images increases
the peak-fitting algorithm also loses some accuracy and the
noise increases. Another effect appears when the particle
image diameter becomes too small. This effect tends to
bias the displacement towards integer values. Following
Raffel et al (1998), this peak-locking appears due to the
peak-fitting which is not accurate enough. Peak-locking
effects also appear depending on the sensor geometry, which
influences the spatial resolution. This source of peak-locking
is described by Westerweel (1998) who specifies that the
particle images have to be larger than 2 pixels to reduce it. To
minimize peak-locking error without affecting the accuracy,
a solution proposed by Guichard et al (1998) and Scarano
and Reithmuller (2000) is to use an iterative sub-pixel shift,
based on an interpolation of the particle images. Foucaut et al
(2004) tested these methods, evidenced the efficiency and
showed that the Whittaker interpolation proposed by Scarano
and Reithmuller (2000) presents the best accuracy. Basically,
peak-locking is a systematic periodic bias, with a period of
1 pixel. Its effect, which is to attract the displacements towards
integer pixel values, leads to important distortions in the
probability density function (PDF) but, when the displacement
dynamic range is large enough, it has a negligible effect on the
rms value (Foucaut et al 2004). Finally, it should be mentioned
that Westerweel (1997) demonstrated that the bandwidth of
digital PIV is limited due to the resolution of CCD cameras
(their maximum optical spatial frequency is indeed generally
of the order of 100 mm1). This limitation increases the noise
and, according to Lourenco and Krothapalli (2000), could be
one source of peak-locking.
In the first part of the present contribution, an experimental
approach based on spectral analysis of the vector field will
be presented to characterize the PIV noise response. A
characterization of the measurement noise will be presented.
In the second part, a comparison of PIV and hot wire
anemometry spectra will be done (Bruun 1995). A model
taking into account the noise will be proposed to predict the
PIV spectrum from the HWA one. In this part, two experiments
will be detailed. The first one corresponds to two single
exposure images using a video camera. The second one is
done with a digital photographic camera which records double
exposure images (auto-correlation). This tends to increase the
noise level (Keane and Adrian 1992).
2. Spectral response of PIV
In this paragraph, the PIV spectral response is studied
experimentally. A well-established way to obtain the spectral
1048
response of a device should be to measure the response to an
impulse signal or to a white noise, but this kind of experiment
would be very difficult to conceive with the complete PIV
chain. A first step of the spectral characterization is thus
to determine the response to a zero input signal. This is
obtained by means of a motionless record. This should be
sensitive at least to the effect of the background, speckle and
camera noise, together with the effect of the shape difference
between the two pulses. The noise due to particle motion will
be studied afterwards.
2.1. PIV experiment in a fluid at rest
A motionless record is supposed to be obtained by means of
a PIV experiment carried out in a glass aquarium filled with
water at rest. The x-axis is horizontal and the y-axis vertical.
The PIV delay was chosen as small as possible in order
to minimize any particle displacement (eventual convection)
between the exposures (25 s). The camera used was a Pulnix
progressive scan TM9701. Its CCD has a size of 768
484 pixels2 of 11.6 13.6 m2 each. The video signal was
digitized at a rate of 30 im s1 by means of an ICPCI board
plugged into a PC computer. A 50 mm focal lens was used
with f # = 8. The magnification was 0.11. For seeding, the
particles naturally contained in water were used. Their
diameter is about 1 m. The light sheet was generated by
a BMI pulsed YAG laser with 2 250 mJ of energy at 15 Hz.
The sheet thickness in the field of view was about 2 mm.
Following Adrian (1991), the depth of the field was about
14 mm which avoids any problem to focus the particle images.
In this configuration, the Airy disc diameter is of the order
of 12 m which gives a size of the order of 1.5 pixels (Adrian
1997). By looking at the particle images, the image size
appeared to be of the order of 2.53 pixels along x by 1.5
2 pixels along y. These differences are attributed to the transfer
functions of the CCD. Following Westerweel (1997) the
maximum optical spatial frequency is W = [(M +1)f #]1 =
211 mm1 which implies, according to the Nyquist criterion,
a resolution of at least 422 pixels per mm. This is much higher
than the capability of the CCD which is 77 mm1 in length and
90 mm1 in width. An estimation of particle images number
was made, which leads to an order of 0.02 ppp (particles
per pixel). This value is a bit too small, the optimal value
should be around 0.04 ppp (Willert and Gharib 1991). Raffel
et al (1998) discussed the influence of the background level
on the noise. The present experiment was done in a dark
room which contributes to giving a background level close to
zero. The analysis was made by the classical cross-correlation
method without shift (the displacement being close to zero)
with a three-point Gaussian peak fitting in each direction. The
displacement being zero, the results were weakly affected by
peak-locking, which tends to reduce the noise intensity.
By this method, the systematic and random errors can be
estimated taking into account the full PIV chain. The mean
values and standard deviation of displacements along x and y
were obtained. These results are given in table 1. Whatever
the analysis window size is, a systematic error of the order of
0.02 pixel can be observed in the displacement along x. This
value increases slightly with the window size. This systematic
error is probably due to the transfer function of the video
camera, the data transfer of which is made along x. This
 PIV optimization for the study of turbulent flow using spectral analysis

Table 1. Systematic and random errors computed from no motion PIV maps.
Window Number of Mean displacement Mean displacement Standard deviation Standard deviation
sizes recorded fields along x (pixel) along y (pixel) u (pixel) v (pixel)
16 16 125 0.016 0.000 0.087 0.050
32 32 125 0.023 0.000 0.055 0.029
64 64 125 0.026 0.000 0.033 0.015

0.1 0.01

0.01
0.001
E11 (pix3)

E 22 (pix )
3
0.001
Overlapping 50%
Overlapping 75% Overlapping 50%
0.0001
0.0001
Overlapping 87.5% Overlapping 75%
Equation (2) Overlapping 87.5%
Equation (2)
kmin
0.00001 kmin
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 0.00001
0.001 0.01 0.1 1
k (rad/pix) k (rad/pix)

Figure 1. Power spectra of displacements along x from no motion Figure 2. Power spectra of displacements along y from no motion
PIV maps. PIV maps.
10
phenomenon is probably specific to the PIV chain used. The
Cardinal sine function
standard deviation decreases when the window size increases slope - 2
according to the results of all the authors mentioned in the 1
introduction. Its values along x are systematically about two - 3db
times larger than the vertical ones. This is in agreement with
2
(sinc k)

the results obtained by Raffel et al for 16 16 interrogation 0.1

windows. Plotting the present particle image diameters on the 0.045

curve of figure 5.23 in Raffel et al (1998) leads to a rms of
0.01
0.08 pixel in the x-direction and of 0.055 pixel in the y one.
The agreement is not so good for the other window sizes.
0.001
k0 k c=1.4
2.2. Spectral analysis 0.1 1 2 10

k
From the 125 vector fields recorded, power spectra were
computed along x, varying the window sizes X (along x) and Figure 3. Characteristics of square cardinal sine function.
Y (along y), this for different overlapping values. For that
equation is: 1/k2. At k0 = 0.39 the function starts to depart
purpose, a Fourier transform was computed by FFT from each
from 1 (by 5%). For a decrease of 3 dB, one gets a value
vector line. The power spectrum is classically computed by
of kc = 1.4 which corresponds to the cut-off frequency of the
the product of the Fourier transform with its conjugate value
filter. In figures 1 and 2, the use of an overlap higher than 50%
divided by the length of the field. The spectra are averaged
does not give a better frequency response but is interesting to
along y according to an homogeneity hypothesis. The mean
evidence the sinc function. In the first paragraph, a cut-off
spectrum of each field is also averaged on the 125 realizations
wave number based on the mean particle displacement 1/x
to obtain a better convergence.
was mentioned. Here, due to the windowing effect, a cut-off
Figures 1 and 2 present the power spectra respectively
wave number of 1.4 (kc X = 2.8) is obtained. In fact, if the
along x and y in the case of a 32 32 interrogation window.
displacement is smaller than the window size (generally four
The spectra are plotted as a function of k, where k is the wave
to three times smaller) the windowing cut-off wave number is
number taken along x. The analysis could be performed along y
the relevant one.
without change. The results are given for three different values
If a PIV record is considered as a continuous signal, the
of the overlap (50, 75 and 87.5%). As can be seen, the obtained
analysis using a sampling window can thus be considered as an
spectra correspond to a white noise multiplied by a squared
averaging procedure over this window. This leads, by Fourier
sinc function: (sinc(kX/2))2 . The sinc function is indeed the
transform, to a multiplication by a sinc function. According
Fourier transform of a gate function which corresponds to
to Lourenco and Krothapalli (2000), the power spectra of the
the interrogation window. As figures 1 and 2 show power
PIV noise can then be expressed as
spectra, the sinc function is squared. Figure 3 gives some  
characteristics of the square sinc function: sinc2 (k). This sin(kX/2) 2
Eii = Enoise (2)
function presents an envelope (given by the thin line) whose kX/2

1049
J M Foucaut et al

0.01 1

0.1

Y E 22 (k) (pix )
0.001

4
E 22 (k) (pix )
3

0.01
64x32 32x64
32x32 32x32
0.0001 32x16
16x32
Equation (2) 0.001 Equation (5)

kmin X/2
0.00001 0.0001
0.01 0.1 1 k c X/2 10 0.1 1 10
k X/2 (rad) k X/2 (rad)

Figure 4. Power spectra of displacements along x, influence of X. Figure 5. Power spectra of displacements along x, influence of Y.
E22 versus kX/2. Y E22 versus kX/2.

where Enoise is the white noise level obtained by fitting the Enoise is of the same order as earlier (17.6 103 pixel3). The
spectrum with equation (2). This model is also plotted in abscissa representation seems universal when X varies, which
figures 1 and 2 with Enoise = 17.5 103 pixel3 and 4.4 leads to a cut-off wave number given by
103 pixel3 respectively for E11 and E22. The noise level is
kc X = 2.8. (3)
thus about four times higher for E11 than for E22 in agreement
with the values of the standard deviation in table 1. As can This result is in agreement with the fact that the standard
be seen, there is a small gap at high frequency between the deviation u of the displacement decreases when the window
spectra and the model around the point where the sinc function size increases. u is indeed the square
root of the
goes to zero. However, if this function is disconvoluted from integral of the power spectra: u2 = E11 (k) dk =


the measured spectra, the signal obtained is very close to a 2 0 E11 (k) dk. In the present case, equation (2) leads to
white noise.
2  2
u2 = 2 0 Enoise sin(u)
u
du. If an overlap of 75% is used, as
At the lowest wave numbers, E11 presents some variations the spectrum shows a second lobe, the integration is performed
which lead to a gap with the white noise (this is not the case
2  2
on [0, 2]. From I = 0 sin(u) du = 1.492, u can be
for E22). This gap is probably also due to the transfer function u
directly obtained by
of the video camera. This brings a disturbance in the spectra 
which can be linked to the systematic error observed in table 1. 4Enoise I
In the following, the results presented correspond to E22 and u = (4)
X
are generalized to Eii .
u is thus proportional to the inverse of the square root of the
Theoretically, the lower significant frequency resolved
window length. With 50% of overlap, the integral term has to
is the inverse of the field length which, in this case, gives
be limited to and I = 1.418.
kmin = 8.5 103 rad/pixel. This value is shown in figure 1
The effect of the window size along y is presented in
by a vertical dashed line. The number of vectors varies from
figure 5. The spectra are calculated with a window size X of
48 to 192 depending on the overlap used.
32 pixels and three different values of Y: 16, 32 and 64 pixels.
The PIV measurement transfer function is thus
In this case the convergence of the spectra can be influenced
comparable to a low-pass filter which is characterized by a
by the variable number of vector lines in the y-direction. The
square sinc function due to the window effect. It presents a
adequate number of fields used should minimize this problem.
cut-off wave number of 2.8/X, X being the physical window
When Y varies, the spectra are still in agreement with the model
size, whatever the overlap is.
of equation (2) but the noise level Enoise increases when the
From figures 1 and 2, it is clear that an overlap larger
window size Y increases. The Enoise values are 35, 17.5 and
than 50% is of no interest as far as the spectral resolution is
8.8 103 pixel3 respectively for Y = 16, 32 and 64 pixels.
concerned. But an overlap of 75% will be used hereafter in
It can be remarked that Enoise varies with the inverse of Y.
order to detect easily the sinc function. Figure 4 presents the
A new representation can then be proposed of Y E 22 (kX/2)
influence of the window size X which varies from 16 to 64
versus kX/2. Figure 5 shows the spectra in this representation.
pixels. Y is kept at 32 pixels in order to have no effect on
A model deduced from equation (2) is also plotted, it is
the convergence of the spectra. Only linked to the field size
expressed as
along x, the value of kmin is the same as in figure 1. The effect
 
of the interrogation window size is only to change the length sin(kX/2) 2
of the sinc function. In figure 4, the results are plotted in a Y E 22 = . (5)
kX/2
representation where k has been scaled by the half window
As can be seen, the spectra for different Y values superimpose
size X/2. Strictly speaking, the fact of multiplying k by X/2
and the model of equation (5) is in good agreement with them.
corresponds to a change of variable which leads to E22 (k) =
The constant which has been introduced is given by
E22 (kX/2) X/2. In this figure, the spectra follow the model
of equation (2) whatever the window size is. The noise level = Enoise Y. (6)

1050
 PIV optimization for the study of turbulent flow using spectral analysis

1 1

0.1 0.1

Y E 22 (k) (pix )
Y E 22 (k) (pix )

4
4

0.01 0.01
64x64 Classical
32x32 Padding
16x16 0.001 Equation (5)
0.001
Equation (5)

0.0001 0.0001
0.01 0.1 1 1.4 10 0.1 1 10
k X/2 (rad) k X/2 (rad)

Figure 6. Power spectra of displacements along x, influence of the Figure 7. Power spectra of displacements along x, influence of zero
window size. padding.

Table 2. Spectral noise density and estimated standard deviations of

noise.
Window 1 2 u v
sizes (pixel4) (pixel4) estimated
16 16 0.49 0.119 0.107
32 32 0.55 0.139 0.057
64 64 0.59 0.143 0.029
In the present case, it takes a constant value of 0.56 pixel4.
The noise level thus increases linearly when the window size
Y decreases: Enoise = /Y where is a constant for a given
recording configuration. Equation (5) allows us to conclude
that the cut-off frequency is still given by kc X = 2.8 whatever
the window size Y is. The standard deviation of the noise can
now be estimated as
 u = X
4 I
u = . (7)
XY
The intensity u of the noise is thus proportional to the inverse
of the square root of the interrogation window area.
From these results, to obtain a good spectrum, the idea
could be to choose a rectangular window with a small X to
increase the cut-off frequency and a large Y to decrease Enoise .
The problem would then be for the spectrum in the y-direction.
The best compromise is thus to use square windows. Figure 6
shows spectra in the same representation as in figure 5
computed for different window sizes (16, 32 and 64 pixels)
with an aspect ratio of 1. The model given by equation (5) is
also plotted in this figure. It can be observed that the spectra
are in good agreement with the model. is nearly constant and
takes almost the same values as in figure 5. The cut-off wave
number is the same as in figure 4. This result confirms that
the cut-off frequency due to the sinc function depends only
on the window size X in the direction where the spectrum is
computed. The noise level Enoise depends only on the window
size Y in the opposite direction.
Table 2 presents the values of 1 and 2 deduced from
figure 6 and the estimation of u and v computed with
equation (7) respectively for the displacement along x and y.
1/2
Although the interrogation window sizes are different, the
density is quasi-constant for a given direction. The small
spectra. In table 2 the estimated standard deviations compare
favourably with the measured values given in table 1.
According to Willert and Gharib the noise is for a
estimated
significant part due to the particle images cut by the border
0.053 of the interrogation window. They explain that the ratio of
0.028 truncated particle images to untruncated ones increases as the
0.014
window becomes smaller. To evidence this effect, a number
of particles per pixel Np can be considered, the noise is then
proportional to 2(X + Y ) Np which gives a statistical estimation
of the number of truncated particles. The noise also decreases
as the number of particle images in the window, given by XYNp,
increases. In a first approximation, for square windows, the
noise is given by u = 2C(X+Y )
, that is u = 4C as X = Y, where
XY X
C is a coefficient which depends only on the experimental
characteristics.
This result is in agreement with the estimation
4 I
given by equation (7) (for Y = X ) deduced from
the noise experiment. Due to bad convergence, the statistical
estimation of the number of particle images truncated can be
biased as the interrogation window size decreases. This could
explain the small variation of in table 2.
Generally the FFT routines use only samples in powers
of 2. To compute displacements whatever the window size
is, a padding has to be used (Gui and Merzkirch 1998). In
figure 7, a comparison of the spectra computed with a 32 32
interrogation window by the classical method and by padding
it in a 64 64 FFT window is presented. Both spectra are
very similar, showing that the padding technique, if correctly
applied, has no major effect on the noise.
In their paper, Roth and Katz (2001) use a direct
computation of the correlation instead of FFT. The direct
computation is given by
 
R(l, m) = I1 (i, j )I2 (i + l, j + m). (8)
i=0,X j =0,Y
Nogueira et al (2001) used a normalized expression of this
computation

R(l, m) = (I1 (i, j ) I1 )(I2 (i + l, j + m) I2 )
i=0,X j =0,Y

(I1 (i, j ) I1 ) 2
(I2 (i + l, j + m) I2 )
2
.
i=0,X j =0,Y i=0,X j =0,Y

differences are probably due to an effect of convergence of the (9)

1051
J M Foucaut et al

1 1.E+00

1.E-01
0.1
Y E 22 (k) (pix )
4

1.E-02
No periodicity

E 11
0.01 Sinus
FFT+ Interger shift 1.E-03 Squared sinus
Equation (8)
Sym. sinus
Equation (9)
0.001 1.E-04 Straigth line
FFT + Whittaker
Sym. straight line
Exact solution
1.E-05
0.0001 1 10 100
0.1 1 10 k
k X/2 (rad) (a)

Figure 8. Power spectra of displacements along x, influence of the No periodicity

1.E-02
correlation computation method. Sinus
Squared sinus
1.E-03
Figure 8 shows a comparison of the spectra computed from Sym. sinus
Straight line
both direct correlation (equations (8) and (9)) and the FFT- 1.E-04

based algorithm. This comparison is done with 32 32
window size. The shape of each spectrum is the same but
the FFT-based correlation gives the best result as far as the
noise level is concerned. The values of Enoise are 0.145, 0.30
and 0.57 respectively for FFT-based, normalized and non-
normalized direct correlation. This phenomenon is explained
by Foucaut et al (2004). It is due to the particle images cut by
the border of the first interrogation window. These images are
not truncated in the same way by the second one which moves
when direct correlation is used. A solution is to compute the
direct correlation on limited windows in order to avoid this
phenomenon (Foucaut et al 2004). This method then gives
the same spectrum as FFT-based cross-correlation.
It is now well known that sub-pixel shift reduces the
peak-locking effect and then improves the accuracy. Foucaut
et al (2004) showed that the Whittaker interpolation used
by Scarano and Reithmuller (2000) is well adapted to the
PIV processing. They explained that this technique is better
because it respects the sampling theorem. Figure 8 also shows
a spectrum obtained from an analysis with sub-pixel shift
using the Whittaker interpolator (see Scarano and Reithmuller
(2000)). This method tends to avoid the peak-locking effect.
As seen in this figure, the noise level increases slightly to about
4%. This result confirms that the peak-locking effect has no
strong effect in the spectral domain (Foucaut et al 2004).
3. Comparison of PIV and HWA power spectra
3.1. PIV experiment with a small dynamic range
In order to better characterize the measurement noise and the
PIV response to a turbulent signal, an experiment has been
carried out in a boundary layer wind tunnel (Carlier 2001).
This experiment allows us to compare hot wire anemometry
spectra with PIV spectra. The boundary layer is turbulent. The
Reynolds number based on momentum thickness is 7800. The
boundary layer thickness is about 0.3 m and the free stream
velocity is 3 m s1. The HWA measurements were obtained
with a classical method by recording the instantaneous velocity
during a long period (300 s) with a sampling frequency of
2200 Hz (Shannon theorem was fulfilled). The number of
E 11 (m /s )
Sym. straight line
2
3
1.E-05 Slope -5/3
1.E-06
1.E-07
kmin
1.E-08
10 100 1000 10000
k (rad/m)
(b)
Figure 9. Comparison of different treatments performed on a sin
wave (a) and on PIV data (b) to compute spectrum.
samples was 1260 000. The Kolmogoroff frequency being
of the order of 1 kHz, a filter was used to avoid the folding effect
with a cut-off frequency of 2 kHz. The hot wire length was
0.5 mm, corresponding to four wall units which is comparable
to the Kolmogoroff scale. The spectra were obtained by
computing the Fourier transform of the HWA signal with the
same FFT algorithm as for PIV (average of about 300 spectra
of 4096 samples). A Taylor hypothesis was used to convert
from time to space (Hinze 1975).
For PIV, the measurements were performed in a small
region of a turbulent flow. The signal is thus not periodic.
This non-periodicity leads to discontinuities when the FFT is
used to compute the spectrum. If the signal is comparable in
size with one of the largest structures of the turbulent flow, the
discontinuity can increase the noise enough to the order of the
signal. In this case, a treatment to make the sample periodic
is necessary. Figure 9(a) shows the spectrum computed
from a signal corresponding to a small part of a sin wave
(0 < x < /2) f (x) = sin(x) + 13 1
sin(x/13). The exact
solution gives two Dirac functions for k = 1 and k = 13.
If no treatment of periodicity is done, the noise due to the
discontinuity is of the same order as the signal. Different
treatments were tested: multiplying the signal by a sine
function, subtracting the straight line which passes through
the first and the last samples of the signal. These two methods
improve the computation but are not enough, as the derivative
of the signal has also to be periodic. Possible solutions are:
to multiply the signal by a squared sine function or to use a

1052
 PIV optimization for the study of turbulent flow using spectral analysis

Wind tunnel 0.45

U 0.4
Integer shift
0.35 Whittaker
u(y)
0.3 HWA

PDF(u)
Seeding 0.25

0.2

Laser sheet 0.15

0.1
45 mirror
0.05
Spherical Camera
0
lens
-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
Cylindrical
lens u/u'
Pulsed laser

Figure 11. PDF of the velocity along x.

45 mirror
1.E-02

1.E-03
Figure 10. PIV experimental set-up.
1.E-04
E 11 (m /s )
symmetry around the last point of the sample when the sine
2
3

function is multiplied or the straight line is subtracted from 1.E-05

the signal. As can be seen in figure 9(a) the symmetrical HWA spectrum
straight line treatment gives the less noisy spectrum for the 1.E-06 Whittaker
Integer shift
complete range of frequency. These methods were also tested
1.E-07 Equation (10)
on a sample of 200 PIV velocity fields. Figure 9(b) confirms
Slope -2 kmin kmax kc
that the symmetrical straight line is the best method. The 1.E-08
640
symmetric or squared sine functions give a higher noise level 1 10 100 1000 10000
for the smallest frequency. k (rad/m)

Figure 12. Power spectra of velocity along x, 32 32 interrogation

3.1.1. Low magnification. The PIV records were obtained
in a plane parallel to the wall at a distance of about 30 wall
units (figure 10). The laser sheet thickness was of the order of
0.5 mm corresponding to 4 wall units. The same PIV system
as in section 2 was used with the same magnification and
f # number. The whole flow was seeded with poly-ethylene
glycol. The delay between both laser pulses was chosen to
obtain a small dynamic range of the order of 3 pixels (150 s)
in order to get a small signal-to-noise ratio. With this range
the turbulence intensity was only 0.45 pixel. An overlapping
of 75% was also used in order to evidence the sinc function
due to the window averaging in the Fourier space. A total
of 200 fields were recorded to compute the spectrum. The
particle image size was of the same order as in the previous
experiment. The number of particles was close to 0.04 ppp,
that is twice the value in section 2. This should be favourable
from the noise point of view.
In order to evidence the peak-locking effect, figure 11
shows a comparison of the PDF of the u component of the
velocity fluctuation. This PDF is computed on the 200 velocity
field. The PIV analysis is performed with an integer shift and
with a sub-pixel shift using the Whittaker interpolation. These
results are also compared with hot wire anemometry which
shows that the PDF of the flow is nearly Gaussian. The results
with the integer shift analysis show a small peak-locking effect
which tends to reduce the probability close to zero. This effect
is cancelled with the Whittaker sub-pixel shift which is closer
to the hot wire results. The differences between PIV and
HWA for the negative values of the velocity are probably due
to the low dynamic range coupled with a lack of convergence.
window.
To study this effect on the noise, spectra are computed from
the same data. Figure 12 presents the comparison between
PIV spectra for 32 32 IW analysed with integer shift and
Whittaker sub-pixel shift. Besides these spectra, a straight line
with a 2 slope is also plotted on these figures. This figure
does not show a significant difference between both analysis
methods. In the case of the Whittaker analysis the noise level
is about 3% smaller than with integer shift method. When the
dynamic increases, even if the peak-locking effect becomes
stronger, this difference decreases (Foucaut et al 2004). This
allows us to conclude that the peak-locking evidenced by the
PDF function is a negligible random noise in the Fourier
space. Figure 12 also shows the comparison between the
HWA and PIV spectra. In this case the length of the field
was about 80 mm, which leads to kmin = 80 rad m1. This
value is indicated by a short dashed line in the figures. The
PIV spectrum is in agreement with HWA from kmin to a wave
number of the order of kmax = 640 rad m1 (computed at
3 dB). This value is smaller than the PIV cut-off wave number
defined in equation (3), which is 850 rad m1. The difference
appearing above kmax is due to the noise. By considering that
the HWA is close to the exact spectrum, a first approximation
model of the PIV spectrum can be proposed as
 
sin kX/2 2
E11PIV = (E11HWA + Enoise ) (10)
kX/2
where Enoise is adjusted at 3.61 106 m3 s2 by a fit on the PIV
spectrum. The model is in agreement with the PIV spectrum

1053
J M Foucaut et al

1.E-02 1.E-02

1.E-03 1.E-03

1.E-04 1.E-04

E 11 (m /s )
E 11 (m /s )

2
2

3
3

1.E-05 1.E-05

HWA spectrum
1.E-06 1.E-06 HWA spectrum
PIV spectrum
PIV spectrum
Equation (10)
1.E-07 1.E-07 Equation (10)
Slope -2
kmin kc kmin kmax kc
1.E-08 1.E-08
1 10 100 1000 10000 1 10 100 1000 10000
k (rad/m) k (rad/m)

Figure 13. Power spectra of velocity along x, 64 64 interrogation Figure 14. Power spectra of velocity along x, 32 32 interrogation
window. window, high magnification.
1.E-02
up to about kX = 3.8 which corresponds to an attenuation
by the squared sinc function of 6 dB. Figure 13 presents the 1.E-03
comparison between HWA and PIV spectra with 64 64
interrogation windows. In this case, the PIV spectrum is 1.E-04
E 11 (m /s )
2

in agreement with HWA up to the cut-off wave number

3

kc = 430 rad m1. Looking at figure 13, it is clear that the
filtering effect due to this interrogation window size is too
strong. The model given by equation (10) is also presented in
this figure. Enoise is computed from the previous value using
= Enoise X which is considered as a constant.
For the present experiment, the value of is 1.18
108 m4 s2. In pixel units, a value of = 2.432 pixel4 is
obtained which is higher than in the experiment of section 2.
The difference will be discussed further downstream. As
for the 32 32 pixel2 window size analysis, the model
is in agreement with the PIV spectrum approximately up
to kX = 3.8. Around and above this value, a significant
difference exists, as in the experiment of section 2. The
PIV spectrum does not go to zero. Here it tends towards the
2 envelop of the sinc function. Thus, the proposed model
supports the idea that the difference between PIV and HWA
is due to the combined effect of PIV noise and the use of an
interrogation window for the PIV analysis. The same result
as in section 2 can be deduced. The PIV method behaves as a
band pass filter. The cut-off wave numbers kc can be deduced
from equation (2), X being the interrogation window size in
physical units. This cut-off, indicated by the long dashed line
in figures 12 and 13, decreases when the interrogation window
size increases. As observed in both figures, the wave number
kmax increases first when the window size increases up to
kmax = kc. This is due to the fact that, for a given PIV
recording set-up, is constant and thus Enoise increases when
X decreases. Above this limit, the noise plays a less important
role and kmax = kc.
3.1.2. High magnification. A solution often suggested to
resolve the high frequency part of the spectrum with PIV is to
increase the optical magnification. Thus, the same experiment
was repeated in the same installation but with a magnification
three times higher than the previous one. The f # number
was 16. The maximum optical spatial frequency is then
89 mm1 which is very close to the capability of the CCD
sensor. The particle image size was nearly the same. The
1.E-05
HWA spectrum
1.E-06 PIV spectrum
Equation (10)
1.E-07 slope -2
kmin kmax kc
1.E-08
800
1 10 100 1000 10000
k (rad/m)
Figure 15. Power spectra of velocity along x, 64 64 interrogation
window, high magnification.
number of particles was down to 0.025 ppp. The PIV delay
was 100 s.
Figures 14 and 15 present the same results as figures 12
and 13 but with a magnification of 0.32. The comparison
of figures 12 and 14 clearly shows the objective: for the
same interrogation window size in pixels, the sinc function
is extended towards the high frequencies (it goes to zero now
at 5733 rad m1 instead of 1916 rad m1 and both kmin and kc
are tripled taking the values 240 rad m1 and 2550 rad m1
respectively.
As can be seen from figure 14, the PIV spectrum is in
agreement with the hot wire over a small range. In the covered
bandwidth (kmin < k < kc), the model of equation (10) follows
this spectrum quite well with = 5.8 pixel4. This value of is
about two times higher than the value for low magnification.
However, given the magnification, the value of in physical
units is 7.86 1010 m4 s2 which is about 15 times
smaller. Consequently, Enoise is about five times smaller
(7.2 107 m3 s2 for a 32 32 window). At the wave number
kmin; the signal amplitude is about 5.7 times smaller which is
comparable. But, at the cut-off wave number (analysis with
64 64 IW), the signal amplitude decreases down to a value
about 20 times smaller. In the Fourier space, the signal-to-
noise ratio (signal amplitude over Enoise computable for each
frequency) is thus much poorer in the second experiment. In
figure 15 the PIV spectrum is in agreement with the hot wire
up to kc = kmax. This window size seems to be close to the
limit under which the noise increases and kmax decreases.

1054
 PIV optimization for the study of turbulent flow using spectral analysis

1.E-02 1.E-02

1.E-03 1.E-03

1.E-04 1.E-04
E 11 (m /s )

E 11 (m /s )
2

2
PIV spectrum

3
3

1.E-05 1.E-05 Equation (12)

Equation (11)
1.E-06 1.E-06 HWA spectrum
HWA spectrum
Equation (11) Slope -2
1.E-07 1.E-07

kc kmin kc
1.E-08 1.E-08
1 10 100 1000 10000 1 10 100 1000 10000
k (rad/m) k (rad/m)

Figure 16. Interrogation window optimization method from HWA Figure 18. Interrogation window optimization method from PIV
spectrum. spectrum analysed with 24 24 pixel2 window size.

1.E-02
If no a priori spectral information is available, an
1.E-03 alternative is proposed in figure 18. An analysis with a
small window size (24 24 in this figure) has to be used,
1.E-04 which shows a high noise level. From the PIV spectrum, the
E 11 (m /s )
3 2

value of Enoise /2 can be directly deduced at the cut-off wave

1.E-05
HWA spectrum
1.E-06
PIV spectrum
1.E-07 Equation (10)
kmin
kc
1.E-08
1 10 100 1000
k (rad/m)
Figure 17. Power spectra of velocity along x, optimized 36 36
interrogation window.
3.1.3. Optimization of the window size. Based on the
previous analysis, an optimization of the PIV window size
can be proposed. It is based on a signal-to-noise ratio of 1
(in the Fourier space) at the cut-off frequency and on kc =
kmax. Taking into account the attenuation of the sinc function
at the cut-off frequency, a specific amplitude can be estimated
as E3dB = /3X, if a square interrogation window is used.
Taking equation (3) into account, this amplitude at the cut-off
frequency is written as
E3dB = kc . (11)
8.4
Figure 16 shows the line corresponding to equation (11) and
the HWA spectrum. At the point where equation (11) cuts the
spectrum, the cut-off frequency is obtained and the optimized
IW size can be deduced from equation (3). In the case
of the low magnification experiment, a size of 36 pixels is
obtained. Using this value, a new analysis was performed and
the spectrum was computed. Figure 17 shows the comparison
of the PIV and HWA spectra with the model of equation (10).
As can be seen, the PIV spectrum follows correctly the
HWA one up to kmax = kc = 750 rad m1 which was the
goal. By this method, a compromise is obtained between
the frequency response, and the spatial resolution in the
physical domain. The drawback is that this optimization
method requires knowledge of the spectrum of the flow.
However, it allows us to obtain the best spatial resolution
necessary for the study of the turbulent motion.
number which allows us to obtain . The signal amplitude is
considered as negligible as compared to the noise level at this
frequency. To be sure that the value of is valid, it is important
to check that, at the wave number kc, the PIV spectrum tends
to a slope of 2. To obtain an estimation of the real spectrum,
equation (10) can then be inverted
10000
E11 = E11PIV / sinc2 (kX/2) ( /X). (12)
Using the value of and the spectrum of equation (12), the
previous optimization method can be applied. In figure 18,
one can check that equation (12) gives a spectrum very close
to the hot wire up to kc (corresponding to 24 24 pixel2 IW
size). At the point where equation (11) cuts equation (12) the
optimal window size is obtained. This method gives almost the
same value kc = 750 rad m1 (corresponding to X = 36 pixels)
as the previous one. The interest is that the optimal value is
obtained directly from the PIV analysis. In the case of the
high magnification experiment, using the same approach, an
optimal window size of 60 60 pixel2 was obtained. This
larger value is due to the worse SNR.
3.1.4. Discussion. As was evidenced in section 2, the
noise level is partly due to the particle images cut by the
border of the interrogation window. The low magnification
experiment presented in section 3.1.1 shows a lot of similarity
with the noise experiment of section 2.1, as far as the PIV
set-up is concerned. The difference in noise level or more
particularly in between these two experiments should be
explained by some other sources. The optical bandwidth does
not explain this difference as in the last experiment its value
is smaller while the noise level is larger. The next possible
contribution is peak-locking but, given the result obtained with
the Whittaker method, it is clear that the peak-locking effect
gives a white noise which is negligible as compared to the total
noise. Moreover, a theoretical study using a simple model of
peak-locking (close to the one of Westerweel (1998)) has been
tested on a synthetic white noise which confirms that its effect
is negligible in the spectral space. Moreover, the peak-locking
influence decreases when the dynamic range increases.

1055
J M Foucaut et al

The difference in noise level can be due to the isolated 1.E-02

particles. These isolated particles are due both to 3D motions

1.E-03
(particles going in and out of the light sheet) and to the
difference in thickness and intensity between the two light
1.E-04

E 11 (m /s )
pulses (difference beam shape and divergence). From a study

2
3
on synthetic images, Foucaut et al (2004) show that the order 1.E-05
of out-of-plane velocity in a turbulent flow can beestimated HWA spectrum
PIV spectrum
using the out-of-plane turbulent intensity as W = 2 w 2 M
t 1.E-06
Equation (10)
where M is the magnification in pixel m1. According to Keane
1.E-07 slope -2
and Adrian (1990) the value of W should verify W/z0 < 0.2
kmin kmax kc
in order to limit the noise where z0 is the laser sheet thickness. 1.E-08
800
This ratio is respectively of 0.08 and 0.05 for the low and 1 10 100 1000 10000

high magnification experiments. The effect of the out-of- k (rad/m)

plane displacement is then negligible. However, in the low
magnification experiment, the second image has an histogram
with a mean and standard deviation about 10% higher than the
first one. In the noise experiment, the image characteristics
seem more identical. This could explain such a difference.
Finally, the difference can be attributed to the
displacement difference between the top and the bottom of
the light sheet due to the velocity gradient. This gradient can
be estimated as 0.035 and 0.07 pixel respectively for the low
and high magnification experiments. These values seem small
but do not take into account the fluctuation.
Figure 19. Power spectra of velocity along x, 24 24 interrogation
window.
diameter is about 4 m giving a theoretical particle image size
of 1.6 pixels. The real particle image size obtained was about
2 pixels, probably due to the optical aberrations of the lens
at this aperture. The depth of field was smaller than 1 mm,
making the focus setting fairly touchy. These measurements
were made at 100 wall units. A total of 200 fields were
recorded. The PIV delay was optimized in order to obtain a
dynamic range of about 15
The next possible origin, which can be probably the most
important given the previous analysis, is the small scale motion
of particles inside the window. This motion has two effects.
First, an increase of the noise in the correlogram which can
affect the shape of the peak. Second, some small differences
of particle location can generate differences of digitization of
particle images. In conclusion, it is difficult to characterize
this kind of effect, but the small influence of each origin of
noise analysed previously allows us to conclude that the noise
level, which is about four times higher in the low magnification
experiment than in the noise experiment, is probably due to
the small scale motion of particles inside the interrogation
window.
3.2. PIV experiment with a high dynamic range
A second experiment has been carried out in the same
configuration (figure 9) but with another camera (Carlier
2001). The new camera is a Kodak DCS 460, with a CCD
of 3072 2048 pixel2, the size of which is 9 9 m2.
The interest of this camera is to increase the field size as
compared to the Pulnix one (768 484 pixel2). The drawback
is that it works in double exposure mode (auto-correlation).
Keane and Adrian (1992) showed that the cross-correlation
method applied to single or double exposure records (with
image shifting) presents better accuracy than auto-correlation.
That study was based on the spatial resolution, the detection
probability and the measurement accuracy. The detection
probability is defined as the fraction of interrogation spots
that produce velocity measurements. The cross-correlation
on double exposure images presents a detection probability
between the cross-correlation on single exposure images and
auto-correlation. This indicates a noise level for the double
exposed images larger than for the single exposed ones. A
100 mm Nikkor lens was used with an aperture of 2.8.
The magnification was 0.173. The corresponding diffraction
1056
pixels (400 s). Such a delay leads
to a turbulence intensity u2 of 2.2 pixels. Cross-correlation
with discrete local shift was used with an overlapping of 50%.
The particle image density was of the order of 0.025 ppp. The
number of vectors being already about 40 000, a 75% overlap
was not used.
Figure 19 presents the comparison of the spectra obtained
by means of PIV with 24 24 pixel2 IW and of hot wire
anemometry. The size of the CCD and the magnification
allow us to obtain kmin = 40 rad m1. The PIV spectrum is in
agreement with HWA up to kmax = 800 rad m1. The model
of equation (10) is in good agreement, showing the same
effect of the noise as earlier. The density is here of 5.5
1010 m4 s2 (12.4 pixel4) and will be discussed further
downstream. The cut-off wave number is 2200 rad m1.
Comparing figures 14 and 18, it appears that for the same IW
size (in physical units: X 1 mm) the double exposure mode
brings a slight decrease of kmax while the main improvement
is in kmin due to the CCD size. The model of equation (10) is
still valid.
An optimization of the window size by adjusting the SNR
to 1 at the cut-off frequency (as in section 3.1.3) gives a size
of 44 pixels. Figure 20 shows the power spectra analysed
with this size, compared to the model of equation (10). The
prediction based on a constant gives here again a good
result. The PIV spectrum is now in agreement with HWA up to
kmax = kc = 1200 rad m1.
Table 3 summarizes the value of obtained in the four
experiments. It gives also the wave numbers kmin and kmax, the
noise level Enoise (equation (6)) and the standard deviation u
(equation (7)) computed for each window size. It presents
finally an estimation in per cent of the accuracy which is
computed from the rms error due to the noise ( u/Dyn). As far
as the spatial resolution is concerned, for each experiment it is
clear that the largest range is obtained in the optimized case.
A coupling of both Pulnix experiments allows us to obtain
 PIV optimization for the study of turbulent flow using spectral analysis

Table 3. Comparison of the different results obtained previously.

X X kmin Kmax kmax Enoise Enoise 107 u Accuracy
Exp (pixel) (mm) (rad m1) (rad/pixel) (rad m1) (pixel4) (pixel3) (m3 s2) (pixel) (%)
Noise 16 0.175 0.56 0.0350 0.115
32 0.0875 0.56 0.0175 0.057
64 0.0437 0.56 0.0088 0.029
Low mag. 24 2.45 80 0.117 480 2.432 0.1013 48.1 0.159 6.63
32 3.27 80 0.0875 640 2.432 0.0760 36.1 0.119 4.97
36 3.68 80 0.0778 760 2.432 0.0676 32.1 0.106 4.42
64 6.54 80 0.0437 430 2.432 0.0380 18.0 0.060 2.49
High mag. 32 1.09 240 0.0875 920 5.8 0.1813 7.20 0.184 3.92
60 2.05 240 0.0467 1360 5.8 0.0967 3.84 0.098 2.09
64 2.18 240 0.0437 1280 5.8 0.0906 3.60 0.092 1.96
High dyn. 24 1.28 40 0.117 800 12.4 0.5167 4.45 0.359 2.41
44 2.35 40 0.0636 1200 12.4 0.2818 2.43 0.196 1.32
64 3.41 40 0.0437 820 12.4 0.1938 1.67 0.135 0.90

1.E-02 4. Conclusion
1.E-03 In this contribution, the PIV frequency response has been
studied by an experimental approach. A PIV experiment in
1.E-04
quiet water was carried out in order to measure the part of the
E 11 (m /s )
3 2

1.E-05
1.E-06 HWA spectrum
PIV spectrum
Equation (10)
1.E-07
kmin
1.E-08
1 10 100
k (rad/m)
Figure 20. Power spectra of velocity along x, optimized 44 44
interrogation window.
a large range of wave number: from 80 to 1360 rad/pixel.
The Kodak camera allows us to cover almost the same range
(401200 rad/pixel), but only one experiment was necessary
due to the large size of the CCD sensor. The noise level
u is of the order of 0.05 pixel for the noise experiment, of
0.1 pixel in the case of the low magnification experiment
(Pulnix camera) and of 0.2 pixel in the case of the large
dynamics experiment (Kodak camera). The difference
between the first two experiments has already been discussed.
The results with the Kodak camera are due to the double
exposure mode. The fact of using a large dynamic range
(about 14 pixels) can increase the out-of-plane component
effect. The estimation of W/z0 is 0.2 which is smaller than the
acceptable limit (0.25) given by Keane and Adrian (1990). The
wall distance being about three times higher, the error due to
the gradient is negligible. The accuracy of the last experiment
(1.32%) seems to be the best due to the large dynamic range
which was used here.
The following step of the present study would be
to perform the PIV analysis using an image deformation
algorithm (Lecordier and Trinite 2003). Lecordier and Trinite
did compare spectra computed from synthetic images built
from DNS results with and without the deformation algorithm.
The improvement concerning the noise level seems significant.
They evidence also the strong effect of the out-of-plane
component on the noise level in the spectral space.
noise which is not due to the particle motion. This experiment
has allowed us to obtain a universal representation and a model
of the noise spectrum (equation (5)). This model shows that
the noise is white and that the PIV transfer function is a
squared cardinal sine function. This function presents a cut-
kc off frequency kc = 2.8/X which depends only on the window
1000 10000
size in the direction where the spectrum is computed. The
noise level in one dimension of the Fourier domain depends
only on the window size in the other direction (equation (6)).
A spectral noise density coefficient can be introduced which
is only a function of the PIV recording configuration. This
density coefficient allows us to compute the standard deviation
of the spectral noise knowing the IW size. This standard
deviation is in good agreement with the experimental result
and the noise behaviour confirms the idea of Willert and Gharib
(1991) that most of it is due to the particle images cut by the
IW border.
In a turbulent flow, the experiments performed show that
the PIV transfer function is conserved and that the turbulent
particle motion does not change deeply the nature of the
noise. If the turbulence spectrum is known (in the present
case deduced from hot wire measurement), a model can be
proposed (equation (10)), which is coherent with the model
for zero displacement and which allows us to deduce the noise
level and thus the density from a PIV spectrum computation.
This model shows again that the noise is white and that its level
depends strongly on the recording set-up. The results show
a significant increase of when the particles are moving. A
careful analysis of the possible supplementary noise sources
shows that the peak locking is negligible if the dynamic range
is larger than three pixels. A significant source of noise appears
to be the small scale motion of particles inside the interrogation
window. Sub-pixel shifting brings a slight improvement if the
dynamic range of turbulence is small.
Finally, the model proposed has allowed us to determine
an optimal interrogation window size which is the best
compromise between spectral noise and spatial resolution.
This optimization brings a noticeable improvement to the

1057
J M Foucaut et al
spectrum when compared to the HWA. One important
conclusion of this study is that, for the assessment of
turbulence, PIV is limited by the size of the CCD on the
low wave number side and by the noise level on the high wave
number side. Thus if it seems useful to reduce the field of view
to try to resolve the small scales, it is better first to reduce the
noise. Part of it can be minimized by a careful adjustment of the
recording parameters, but some gain can also be expected from
the processing algorithms. From a practical point of view, one
should emphasize the interest of equation (7) which means that
in a turbulent flow, if one can deduce from the comparison
between the PIV spectrum and the real one (measured by HWA
or modelled), one has access to the standard deviation of the
measurement noise. This allows us to estimate the accuracy of
the measurement. If no spectrum is available, a method based
on an analysis using small windows is proposed. This method
allows us to estimate the value of at the cut-off wave number
when the signal is negligible as compared to the noise level.
Finally, it should be mentioned that the present
experimental contribution is of course partial and that it
would be worth developing it by a detailed analysis, based
on synthetic images of turbulent flow, of the contribution of
the various noise sources. Such a study was already started
by Foucaut et al (2004) in the case of series of uniform
displacement.
Another development would be to look at the effect of the
advanced PIV algorithms which take into account the velocity
gradients inside the interrogation window.
Acknowledgments
This work has been performed under the EUROPIV2 project.
EUROPIV2 (a joint program to improve PIV performance for
industry and research) is a collaboration between LML URA
CNRS 8107, Dassault Aviation, DASA, ITAP, CIRA, DLR,
ISL, NLR, ONERA and the universities of Delft, Madrid,
Oldenburg, Rome, Rouen (CORIA URA CNRS 230), St
Etienne (TSI URA CNRS 842), Zaragoza. The project
is managed by LML URA CNRS 8107 and is funded by
the European Union within the 5th framework (contract no.
G4RD-CT-2000-00190).
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