High-speed time-resolved tomographic particle shadow velocimetry using smartphones

The video-capabilities of smartphones are rapidly improving both in pixel resolution and frame-rates. Herein we use four smartphones in the “slow-mo” option to perform time-resolved Tomographic Particle Shadow Velocimetry of a vortex ring, using 960 fps. We use background LED-illuminated diffusers, facing each camera, for shadow particle imaging. We discuss in-depth the challenges present in synchronizing the high-speed video capture on the smartphones and steps to overcome these challenges. The resulting 3-D velocity field is compared to an instantaneous, concurrent, high-resolution snapshot with four 4k-video cameras using dual-color to encode two time-steps on a single frame. This proof-of-concept demonstration, supports realistic low-cost alternatives to conventional 3-D experimental systems.