Flow visualisation and optical diagnostics: the CREDEM is at the cutting edge of technolgy!

Picture credit : Marco Ranieri

As part of the Plan de Relance and the Energy Transition Platform of Excellence, the CREDEM has just acquired a state-of-the-art flow visualisation and optical diagnostics system to develop new experimental activities and increase its expertise in this field.

The system consists of pulsed lasers, several high-definition cameras, an ultra-fast camera, an LED backlighting system, pulsed flash-LED lamps, a number of lenses, various optics and filters, seeding systems (particles, oils, helium-filled soap bubbles), as well as 2 processing stations and software for carrying out and processing these measurements.

The techniques that can be implemented are :

• PIV (Particle Image Velocimetry),
• LIF (Laser Induced Fluorescence),
• shadowgraphy,
• and combinations of these techniques.

The equipment can be used, for example, to measure a velocity (PIV), temperature or concentration (LIF) field, and to follow the reconstruction of bubbles, drops or particles in 2 or 3 dimensions (volume fields).

Applications ?

They are many and varied. For example, these techniques are particularly used within the Institute of Machanics, Materials and civil engineering - IMMC - to monitor the:

• natural convection and gravitational self-evaporation in basins (applications for nuclear fuel deactivation pools or passive residual heat dissipation systems for future reactors),
• aerodynamics in a wind tunnel (flow behind a wind turbine, a drone, atmospheric dispersion of pollution, etc.),
• combustion in ejectors and supersonic jets (flames, combustion chamber),
• sediment/waste transport in rivers.