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Density measurements using near-field background-oriented Schlieren

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DOI: 10.1007/s00348-014-1720-x

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Exp Fluids (2014) 55:1720
DOI 10.1007/s00348-014-1720-x
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Density measurements using near-field background-oriented
Schlieren
N. P. van Hinsberg • T. Rösgen
Received: 21 November 2013 / Revised: 21 February 2014 / Accepted: 2 April 2014 / Published online: 16 April 2014
Ó Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014
Abstract A modification of the constant correction factor
in the known equations of the background-oriented
Schlieren is presented in order to be applicable to the near-
field. Near-Field background-oriented Schlieren has the
advantage over standard background-oriented Schlieren of
being able to obtain reliable density distributions for set-
ups in which the background pattern is placed directly
behind the investigated flow field. It is proven that the
modified correction factor depends solely on the distance
between the background pattern and the flow field and on
the external shape of the investigated flow field itself. The
proof of principle and the accuracy of the proposed tech-
nique are obtained by the simulation of a 2D density var-
iation with the use of glass wedge prism. The measurement
of the whole-field density information of a supersonic un-
derexpanded free jet is presented as an example that con-
firms the theoretical predictions.
1 Introduction
The development of new flow diagnostic tools to visualise
density variations has mostly taken place in the area of
experimental aerodynamic research in the last decades.
With the relatively old point measurement techniques, like
thermocouples or pressure probes, the density could be
measured indirectly for, respectively, constant pressure
N. P. van Hinsberg (&)
Institute of Aeroelasticity, German Aerospace Center,
37073 Göttingen, Germany
e-mail: nils.vanhinsberg@dlr.de
T. Rösgen
Institute of Fluid Dynamics, Swiss Federal Institute of
Technology Zürich, ETH-Zentrum, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
flows and isothermal flows. The optical density measure-
ment methods have the advantage of being non-intrusive
and of capturing a complete two-dimensional density field
at once.
The most well-known optical density visualisation
techniques are Schlieren photography, interferometry and
shadowgraphy (Merzkirch 1974; Settles 2001). All of these
methods are based on the line-of-sight integration of the
variations in the index of refraction of the fluid within the
measured volume. The major drawbacks of interferometry
in comparison to the other two techniques are its com-
plexity in setting up such instrumentation and in fringe
interpolation to determine the density fluctuations.
Although shadowgraphy has the advantage of its extreme
simplicity, it is only suitable for the qualitative visualisa-
tion of flow fields with relatively large absolute jumps in
the density, e.g. shock waves and turbulence.
Meier (1999) and Dalziel et al. (2000) introduced the
background-oriented Schlieren (BOS) technique as a sim-
plification of the traditional optical Schlieren system. BOS
is based on recording photographic background images
using a camera. In order to determine the changes of the
density variations within the volume, an additional undis-
turbed image has to be recorded as well. By applying the
deconvolution process, a whole-field-projected deflection
map is obtained in the viewing plane, showing not only the
magnitude, but also the direction of the density gradients.
This density gradient field is then integrated to obtain the
projected density field. A detailed comparison between this
method and the calibrated color Schlieren method (CCS)
can be found in Elsinga et al. (2004).
Background-oriented Schlieren has been applied to
several different kinds of aerodynamical flows. Richard and
Raffel (2001) have successfully demonstrated the applica-
tion of BOS to large-scale density field measurements of
123
1720 Page 2 of 11 Exp Fluids (2014) 55:1720

helicopter-generated blade tip vortices. Unfortunately, no

theoretical or numerical comparison to the measurements
was given. Venkatakrishnan and Meier (2004) and Elsinga
et al. (2004) investigated the density field at a Mach 2
supersonic flow around a cone-cylinder and wedge-plate
model, respectively. The compressibility effects in the near-
field of air and helium jets were investigated by Dubois
et al. (2008).
The limitations of the BOS technique become visible
when applied to more complex flow systems, like jet flows of
closely spaced nozzles, flows in the vicinity of non-trans-
parent walls and flows with strong density jumps (e.g. shock
waves in hypersonic flows). The sensitivity of the BOS
method depends, among other factors, on the apparent shift
of the background pattern caused by the variations of the
index of refraction along the line-of-sight, as will be
described in detail in Sect. 2. The apparent shift is a function
of the density gradient, the distance between the investigated
flow and the recoding medium and the distance between the
investigated flow and the background pattern. For flow sys-
tems of which the latter distance is much smaller than the
first, the measured apparent shift can become very small.
This may lead to severe uncertainties in the calculated den-
sity fields. For the visualisation of super- and hypersonic
flows, though, the distance between the flow field and the
background pattern should be small enough to avoid the
formation of caustics (Settles 2001; Elsinga et al. 2004).
This paper describes the near-field background–oriented
Schlieren (NF-BOS) method, with which these difficulties
can be overcome without sophisticated optical equipment.
In order to determine the applicability of this technique,
NF-BOS measurements of a supersonic jet will be com-
pared to analytical data. The compressible jet flow was
chosen, since it offers a density field that is well known and
axisymmetric in the vicinity of the nozzle (Alkislar et al.
2001; Dubois et al. 2008, 2009; Ducasse et al. 2010).
Fig. 1 Near-field BOS principle. a Background dot pattern, b wedge
prism, c lens, d image plane
this apparent shift, two images of the background pattern need
to be recorded; a reference image without any deflection and a
flow image with density variations.
The apparent shift between the two images is calculated
with a cross-correlation technique originally developed for
PIV. The in-plane shifts ½Dnðxi ; yi Þ; Dfðxi ; yi ÞT at the
background plane are
1 1 oni
Dnðxi ; yi Þ ¼ WðW þ 2l0 Þ  ð1Þ
Ccorr n0 oxi
1 1 oni
Dfðxi ; yi Þ ¼ WðW þ 2l0 Þ  ð2Þ
Ccorr n0 oyi
where W ¼ Wðx; yÞ is the actual width of the Schlieren
object, x and y the in-plane coordinates, n0 the undisturbed
refractive index of the surrounding medium, nðx; yÞ the
refractive index of the flow and Ccorr an overall correction
factor for the near- and far-field. This correction factor was
first introduced by Dalziel et al. (2000) and set to 2. In Sect.
3.1, it will be derived that this value for Ccorr is only valid
in the far-field where l0  Wðx; yÞ; in the near-field Ccorr is
a function of l0 and Wðx; yÞ.
The calculated two-dimensional vector field is directly
linked to the gradient of the index of refraction rnðx; yÞ.
Furthermore, through the Gladstone–Dale equation
n ¼ 1 þ Kq ð3Þ

the refractive index is linearly dependent on the density

distribution, where K is the Gladstone–Dale constant. Thus,
2 General BOS measurement technique the density gradient rqðx; yÞ can be determined from the
apparent background shift through
The general set-up for BOS measurements consists of a
recording medium, a computer for the image analysis, a light 1 K oqi
Dnðxi ; yi Þ ¼ WðW þ 2l0 Þ  ð4Þ
source and a background image, which is usually a computer- Ccorr 1 þ Kq0 oxi
generated random dot pattern. The light rays, coming from 1 K oqi
the illumination source, traverse the background pattern and Dfðxi ; yi Þ ¼ WðW þ 2l0 Þ  ð5Þ
Ccorr 1 þ Kq0 oyi
subsequently pass through the measurement volume, where
they are locally deflected by the gradients of the refractive With the use of a finite-integration difference approxima-
index, Fig. 1. The BOS method is sensitive to the first spatial tion scheme of higher order for the gradient terms rq the
derivative of the index of refraction, as long as these deriv- density field qðx; yÞ is obtained:
atives are perpendicular to the line-of-sight of the camera. Aij qi ¼ bj ð6Þ
The fluctuations in the light deflection through the investi-
gated flow cause an apparent displacement of the background where A is the sparse matrix with non-zero entries on its
pattern in the horizontal and/or vertical direction. To obtain diagonals defining the order of the finite-integration

123
Exp Fluids (2014) 55:1720
difference approximation scheme, q the array containing
the density values at each pixel and b the array with the
components of the density gradients rqðx; yÞ for each
position. In this paper, a central-difference scheme is used
for the integration. Because two equations for the density
are produced at each grid point, these results in an over-
specified linear system of equations that can be solved with
a least-squares method based on the conjugate gradient
method (Mendoff 1987). The method works in an iterative
way using the difference between the left and right side of
Eq. (6) to update the solution for the density field. In order
to assure a non-singular system, boundary conditions must
be applied at a small section of the investigated flow, e.g.
the reference density of the medium at an undisturbed
boundary within the investigated flow.
With the apparent shift of the background pattern the
deflection angle  of the light rays passing through the
variable density flow field can be calculated. By applying
the geometric relations based on Fig. 1, one obtains the
following equation for the deflection angle of far-field BOS
ð1 þ l0 =m0 ÞtanðaÞ
ff  tanðff Þ ¼ ð7Þ
l0 =m0  tan2 ðaÞ
with
 
m 0 þ l0  f
tanðaÞ ¼ d cos2 b ð8Þ
ðm0 þ l0 Þf
Here, d is the apparent shift in the image plane, f the focal
length of the lens and b the deviation angle for off-axis
light rays.
3 Near-Field BOS principle
Equation (7) is valid for Schlieren measurements in the so-
called far-field. Referring to Fig. 1, this is the case when
the distance between the investigated flow and the back-
ground dot pattern is at least two orders of magnitude
larger than the width of the flow field W. For BOS mea-
surements in the near-field, however, the background dot
pattern is placed that close to the investigated flow field
that the width of the Schlieren object has now become a
non-negligible factor in the derivation of the deflection
angle. In general, the BOS Eqs. (1) and (2) are valid for
both the far-field and the near-field. Yet—in the near-
field—they have to be foreseen with a variable correction
factor to assure their accurate applicability to NF-BOS. We
shall start by deriving this correction parameter by simu-
lating a synthetic Schlieren experiment of an axisymmetric
jet flow with a random temperature distribution. With a
variable position of the background pattern, we will be able
to visualise the influence of neglecting this correction
factor for NF-BOS.
Page 3 of 11 1720
3.1 Derivation of the modified correction factor
for NF-BOS
To show that the correction factor is a variable parameter, a
simulation of a synthetic Schlieren experiment is per-
formed. An axisymmetric jet flow with a random density
distribution (e.g. Gaussian, linear or stepwise) is used to
predict the theoretical light ray deflections and apparent
background shifts under ideal conditions. Note that the
derivation is not limited to axisymmetric flows, but valid
for any arbitrary shape of the Schlieren object. The near-
field and far-field are simulated by changing the position of
the dot pattern with respect to the flow field.
Based on ray-tracing and a discretisation algorithm, the
light ray deflections are calculated. As input parameters for
the discretisation algorithm, a bundle of parallel light rays
is chosen, which coordinates upon entering the simulated
jet flow are given by ðx0 ; y0 Þ ¼ ðrsinu, rcosu) with
90  u  270 , see Fig. 2. To obtain the integrated
deflection angles of the light rays and the associated
apparent background shift, the light rays are traced through
the refraction index field nðr; xÞ to the background by uti-
lising the so-called ring method. For this method, the
refraction index field is divided into k concentric rings.
Because of the assumption that the refraction index is
constant over each ring, the accuracy of the simulation
depends strongly on the thickness of the rings Dt ¼ r=k.
With the use of the law of Snell and the known values of
the refractive index at the boundaries of each ring, the local
deviation of each light ray per iteration over a ring can be
Fig. 2 Simulation of the light ray-tracing principle through an
axisymmetric jet flow with a random density distribution
123
1720 Page 4 of 11
determined. The local change in the deviation angle, di;j ,
between two subsequent rings within one iteration is
defined as the difference between the old and the new
deflection angle. Following this procedure, for each ring,
the integrated deviation angle i;max of an exiting light ray
Li is then given by the sum of all local changes of the
deflection angle
X
m rection factor, Ccorr ¼ f ðl0 ; Wðx; yÞÞ, should instead be
i;max ¼ di;j ð9Þ
j¼1
The apparent displacement of each light ray at the exit
position equals
Di;jet ¼ tanð\di;j [ Þ  ðyi;1 þ yi;0 Þ ¼ ðxi;1 þ xi;0 Þ ð10Þ
Here, \di;j [ is the mean of the local deflection angles
for a light ray Li while passing through the refractive index
field nðr; xÞ. Di;jet is the hypothetical apparent background
shift that would be measured in case the background pat-
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
tern were to be placed at yi;1 ¼ R2  x2i;1 . For BOS
measurements, the background pattern is placed a certain
distance l0 behind the investigated flow. The measured
apparent background shift is, therefore, Dm instead of Di;jet ,
see Fig. 2. Consequently, two deflection angles can be
defined: the mean measured deflection angle m
 
Dm
m ¼ atan
l0 þ dl
  ð11Þ
½l0  y1   tanði;max Þ þ ðx1  x0 Þ
¼ atan
l0 þ dl
and the theoretical mean deflection angle th
 
Dth
th ¼ atan ¼ \di;j [ ð12Þ
l0 þ dl
In the near-field, where l0  dl, the discrepancy between
the theoretical and measured shifts is small (Fig. 2), thus,
the values for m are relatively close to the actual theo-
retical deflection angles. For increasing values of l0 , in
which case the far-field is approached, the deviation
between the theoretical and the measured deflection angles
increases. In the limiting case (l0 ! 1), the measured
deflection angles are given by Eq. (11) as
 
l0  tanðmax Þ
lim m  atan ¼ max ð13Þ
l0 !1 l0
This implies that there exists a clear difference between the
measured deflection angle and the actual theoretical
deflection angle introduced by the investigated flow field,
both in the near-field and the far-field BOS mode. In case
of increasing l0 , the theoretical deflection angles are
increasingly overpredicted by the measurement. To com-
pensate for this overprediction, a correction factor was
123
Exp Fluids (2014) 55:1720
introduced by Dalziel et al. (2000) in the equations for the
derivation of the gradient of the index of refraction, Eqs.
(1) and (2). By our knowledge, no difference has been
made in the literature between the values of the correction
factor for BOS measurements in the near-field and in the
far-field; the value has always been fixed at Ccorr ¼ 2.
Looking at Fig. 2, it becomes clear that a variable cor-
used. This parameter is derived below with the assumption
that the occurrence of caustics due to large deflection
angles has been avoided by an optimum positioning of the
background dot pattern. Thus, the deflection angles are
small enough for a linearisation of tan () without the
introduction of large errors. With Fig. 2 and taking into
account, the width of the jet Eq. (7) is rewritten as
ð1 þ ½l0 þ dl=½m0  dlÞtanðaÞ
  tanðÞ ¼ ð14Þ
½l0 þ dl=½m0  dl  tan2 ðaÞ
Using the first term of the Taylor series of tan () and the
Eqs. (7), (11), (12) and (14), the ratio of the measured to
the theoretical deflection angle is defined as
m ð1 þ ½l0 þ dl=½m0  dlÞ  ðl0 =m0 Þ 1
¼ ¼
th ð1 þ l0 =m0 Þ  ð½l0 þ dl=½m0  dlÞ 1 þ dl=l0
ð15Þ
2
where tan ðaÞ 1. This equation describes the relation of
the measured deflection angle for BOS in both the near-
field and far-field application to the actual theoretical
deflection angle. The ratio represents an additional cor-
rection factor ccorr;NF that has to be implemented into Eqs.
(1) and (2). Since this factor solely depends on dl, hence
the local width of the Schlieren object, and the local dis-
tance of the background pattern l0 , it is clear that the
absolute values of the refractive index field itself have no
influence on the correction factor. In the near-field, where
l0  dl Eq. (15) strongly depends on the non-dimensional
height of incidence of the light rays. For increasing values
of l0 ,the influence of the incident positions of the light rays
decreases.
The overall correction factor Ccorr for Eqs. (1) and (2) is
now re-defined as Ccorr ¼ 2ccorr;NF with ccorr;NF given by
Eq. (15). For the limiting case in the far-field (l0 ! 1) Eq.
(15) leads to
m
lim ccorr;NF ¼ lim ¼1 ð16Þ
l0 !1 l0 !1 th
hence Ccorr ¼ 2, in agreement with the formulas by Dalziel
et al. (2000).
3.2 Sensitivity of the method
In the section above the general relation for the deflection
angle in both the near- and far-field, (Eq. 14) was derived.
Exp Fluids (2014) 55:1720
This equation shows that the sensitivity of the BOS method
depends on the minimum detectable shift d, the focal
length f, the distance between the image plane and the
investigated flow m0 , the distance between the investigated
flow and the background pattern l0 and the width of the
Schlieren object dl.
For density measurements with l0 m0 , e.g. flows close
to non-transparent walls, in combination with small angles
of b (hence, cosb  1) and tan2 ðaÞ 1, this relation can
be further simplified to
ðm0  f Þ
 d ð17Þ
f ðl0 þ dlÞ
The above equation states that for constant values of the
deflection ; f ; dl and m0 the shift d is proportional to l0 ,
hence in the limiting case of l0 ! dl the measured shift
approaches the minimum detectable shift. To avoid
apparent shifts that lie below the measurable threshold of
the setup, resulting in increased uncertainties in the ana-
lysis, the focal length of the lens has to be increased and/
or the distance between the imaging plane and the
Schlieren object has to be decreased. The change of the
lens to one with a larger focal length, however, leads
automatically to a decrease in the field of view of the
camera. Furthermore, a decrease in the distance between
the image plane and the flow field is limited to the min-
imum working distance of the lens. An optimum between
rÞ
both parameters thus has to be found. An other, but more
expensive, alternative to increase the measured apparent
pixel shift is the use of a camera with a chip having a
higher resolution.
In the study presented in this paper, the minimum
detectable shift in the image plane was 0.05 pixel for the
applied cross-correlation algorithm. The values of the
sensitivity of the system are shown in Fig. 3 for three
different focal lengths. In this figure, the sensitivity is
defined as the smallest value of  in Eq. (14) that can still
be measured for a certain combination of l0 ; m0 and f. For
each focal length, a clear decrease in the sensitivity is
observed for smaller distances between background pattern
and flow field (l0 ), as well as for increasing positions of the
camera to the flow field (m0 ). For very small values of l0 ; a
steep decrease in sensitivity occurs, meaning that stronger
variations in the refractive index and thus in the density
field are required to be able to be accurately detected by the
camera. An increase in the focal length results in an
increase in the sensitivity. This means that for NF-BOS,
where the value of l0 is automatically small with respect to
m0 , a lens with a large focal length has to be used for the
system to have a sufficiently large sensitivity. For the
measurements presented in the following sections, a Nikon
objective with a focal length of 210 mm was therefore
used.
Page 5 of 11 1720
5
x 10
−5
f = 110 [mm]
4
3
tan ( ε)
2
210
1
310
0
1000
800
l0 + m0 [mm] 600
400
400
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
l0 [mm]
Fig. 3 Near-field BOS sensitivity—defined as the smallest detectable
deflections—for three different focal length values
4 Proof of principle
To assess the accuracy of the NF-BOS method, an artificial
deflection field is investigated. A glass wedge prism of
25 mm in diameter is placed between the image plane and
the background pattern, introducing a mean constant
deflection of 1 , as shown in Fig. 1. The wedge prism is
rotated over 45 with respect to the optical axis in order to
obtain an equal absolute deflection in both in-plane direc-
tions for each point on the wedge prism. The thickness of
the wedge decreases or increases in radial direction by
WðrÞ ¼ w0 þ tanða1 Þ  ðR
ð18Þ
with w0 ¼ 3 mm and a ¼ 1:933 . This results in a contin-
uous increase or decrease in the distance between the
wedge and the background pattern in the prism’s radial
direction. For the recordings of the apparent background
shift, a CCD camera (1,280 9 1,024 pixels) equipped with
a Nikon Nikkor 210 mm lens is used. The camera focuses
on the centre of the wedge prism. The position of the
camera and the wedge prism with respect to the back-
ground pattern can be changed to measure the influence of
different values of the distances g ¼ m0 þ l0 þ f and l0 .
In Fig. 4a, the theoretical mean deflection of tanð1 Þ ¼
0:0175 of the wedge prism is compared to the measured
mean deflection for multiple values of the distance between
the wedge prism and the background pattern. In the same
figure, the tangents of the calculated deflection angles
based on Eq. (7) are presented as well. Various distances
between the background pattern and the camera image
plane in the range of 700–1,200 mm are investigated. Per
measurement point, hence a certain combination of l0 and
g, the mean deflection is calculated out of 250 recorded
image pairs. It is observed that Eq. (7) predicts the
experimentally obtained apparent deflection angles rela-
tively well. Some scattering in the experimental data is
found for different values of g at small values of l0 . For
increasing distances between the background pattern and
123
1720 Page 6 of 11 Exp Fluids (2014) 55:1720

0.018 mean deflection of tanð1 Þ ¼ 0:0175 on the other side. For

relatively small values of l0 ðl0  80 mmÞ with respect to g a
0.017 deviation of more than 5 % is found for all values of g.
This relative deviation decreases for increasing l0 because
0.016
of two reasons. The main reason for the large discrepancy
at low values of l0 is the neglected influence of the variable
tan (ε)

0.015
o
tan(1 )
width of the wedge prism WðrÞ in Eq. (7), thus, a constant
Theory eq. 7 correction factor Ccorr ¼ 2 in Eqs. (1) and (2). The second
0.014 g = 700 [mm]
g = 800 [mm] reason, although minor, is that an increase in l0 leads
g = 900 [mm]
0.013 g = 1000 [mm]
automatically to an increase in the apparent shift and thus a
(a)
g = 1100 [mm]
g = 1200 [mm]
more reliable measurement of the deflection angle (Eq. 11).
0.012
The distance l0 is generally applied to the analysis of the
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
BOS recordings to obtain the deflection angles from the
l0 [mm]
measured apparent background pattern shifts, thereby
30 neglecting the width of the Schlieren object. In Sect. 3.1,
Theory eq. 7
g = 700 [mm] however, it was proven that this introduces large errors,
Uncorrected angle deviation [%]

25 g = 800 [mm]
g = 900 [mm]
especially when applied in the near-field where l0 approaches
g = 1000 [mm] dl, as is also shown in Fig. 4b. If now, instead of the fixed
20 g = 1100 [mm]
g = 1200 [mm] correction factor of Ccorr ¼ 2, the modified correction factor
is applied to the measured apparent shifts, thereby noting that
15
dl is defined by Eq. (18) at r = 0 mm, a good agreement
between the theoretical deflection of 1 and the measurement
10
data is obtained, as presented in Fig. 4c. The overall devia-
5
tions lie in the range of ±3 %, corresponding to ±0.2 pixel in
the image plane for all measured values of l0 and g. Although
(b)
0
the absolute apparent shifts are relatively large compared
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450
with those measured for the compressible jet presented in the
l0 [mm]
next section, it shows that even for values of l0 as small as
3 10 mm accurate NF-BOS results are obtained.

2
Corrected angle deviation [%]

5 Implementation of the NF-BOS method

1

5.1 Experimental technique

0

Theory eq. 14 Measurements were taken using the experimental set-up

−1
−2
(c)
−3
0 50 100
Fig. 4 Comparison between the measured apparent deflections (tan
()), the calculated results and the theoretical deflection of tan (1 ) for
different values of l0 and g. The calculated results are based on a,
b Eq. (7) and c Eq. (14). a Absolute measured and theoretical
apparent deflections. b Relative deviation in apparent deflections
between theory and measurement (based on Eq. 7), c Relative
deviation in apparent deflections between theory and corrected
measurement (based on Eq. 14)
the wedge prism this scatter practically disappears. Figure
4b presents a direct comparison between the experimental
results and Eq. (7) on one side and the theoretical apparent
g = 700 [mm]
shown in Fig. 5. To create the underexpanded supersonic
g = 800 [mm]
g = 900 [mm]
g = 1000 [mm]
free jet, a nozzle with a constant diameter of 1.8 mm was
g = 1100 [mm] used, connected to a settling chamber and to a pressure
g = 1200 [mm]
tank filled with Argon. Argon was chosen as the carrier gas
150 200 250 300 350 400 450 to assure sufficiently large density variations in the free jet
l0 [mm] with respect to the surrounding air (qAr =qair ¼ 1:56). With
the use of a pressure valve and a pressure gauge, the total
pressure in the settling chamber could be changed. It was
varied in the range of 2.5–6.0 bar above ambient pressure
with steps of 0.5 bar to investigate the influence of a total
pressure change on diamond pattern of the jet. The camera
was focussed at the background pattern, which was backlit
by a regular light bulb of 60 W. The distances l0 and m0
were 10 and 900 mm, respectively. All recordings were
performed at a frequency of 10 Hz and with an exposure
time of 60 ls. Per measurement, 200 images were taken to
assure a reliable mean flow field.

123
Exp Fluids (2014) 55:1720 Page 7 of 11 1720

A first indication of the presence of a variable density
field can be obtained by subtraction of an instantaneous
flow image from the mean reference image, see Fig. 6a. For
the present jet flow, the contours of the well-known shock
diamonds become clearly visible in this way. The images
are then evaluated using a PIV cross-correlation algorithm
with an interrogation window size of 24  24 pixels and an
overlap factor of 75 %. This leads to an apparent dis-
placement field of 210  167 vectors. The mean apparent
shifts are obtained by averaging the vector fields over all
images, see Fig. 6b. Because the free jet is axisymmetric,
the inverse Abel transform (Montgomery Smith et al. 1988)
is applied on the apparent displacements in both the x- and
y-direction, where for the y-direction the apparent dis-
placement field is turned over 90 to apply the inverse Abel
transform. With the use of Eqs. (4) and (5), the apparent
displacement field is transformed into a density gradient
field. The correction factor for these equations is deter-
mined with the use of Eq. (15), in which dl is calculated
using the radius of the jet at each position z=Djet (see Fig.
6b) and l0 ¼ 5:6Djet . By applying the least-squares method
based on the conjugate gradient method, the density dis-
tribution inside the free jet is obtained with the use of a
finite-difference approximation scheme of 6th order (Fig.
6c for p0 ¼ 5:0 bars). The shock diamond pattern is clearly
recognisable in this figure. In Fig. 7, the position and
absolute value of the local maximum and minimum values
of the non-dimensional density on the symmetry-axis of the
jet flow (r=Djet ¼ 0, Fig. 6c) are plotted for total nozzle
pressures of p0 ¼ 3:0 bars, p0 ¼ 4:5 bars and p0 ¼ 6:0 bars.
For each total pressure, the density field is calculated using
the central-difference approximation scheme of 2nd, 4th,
6th or 8th order for the least-squares method. For CFD
simulations of compressible flows, it is generally known
that the higher the order of the applied numerical scheme
is, the more reliable the obtained spatial accuracy around
shocks and discontinuities becomes. Reflected on the
present analysis of the BOS images, this means that an
increase in the order of the central-difference approxima-
tion scheme leads to a more reliable approximation of the
measured density field, especially at the positions of strong
absolute density gradients like the shock cells. Figure 7
shows that the axial position of the local minimum and
maximum density values is practically independent of the
order of the numerical scheme used, whereas the magni-
tude of the non-dimensional density values varies strongly
between the lower and higher orders. As the increase in
accuracy between the 6th and the 8th order difference
scheme is marginally, the faster 6th order scheme is chosen
for the current measurements. To prevent a data overflow
only half of the density gradient field is used for this cal-
culation, after which the result is mirrored along the
symmetry-axis of the jet.
5.2 Results and discussion

With the value of the non-dimensional density of the jet

flow on the symmetry-axis at the nozzle exit the jet, Mach
number can be calculated according to
2
q0 ðc þ 1ÞMjet;exp
¼ 2
ð19Þ
q 2 þ ðc þ 1ÞMjet;exp

in which c is the ratio of specific heats (for Argon c = 1.67 at

room temperature). The jet Mach number obtained indi-
Fig. 5 Sketch of the experimental NF-BOS setup rectly using the NF-BOS method is compared in Table 1

δ [pix] ρ / ρ0
−4 −4 −4 2.4
1
−3 −3 −3 2.2
−2 −2 0.8 −2 2
−1 L
−1 −1 1.8
jet

r / Djet

s
r / Djet

0.6
r/D

0 0 0 1.6
1 1 0.4 1 1.4
2 2 2 1.2
3 3 0.2 3 1
4 4 0 4 0.8
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
z / Djet z / Djet z / Djet

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 6 NF-BOS image processing algorithm for p0 ¼ 5:0 bars. From a Instantaneous subtracted image. b Mean apparent shift. c Mean
left to right: absolute difference image, apparent displacement field normalised density
and resulting normalised density field. The flow is from left to right.

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1720 Page 8 of 11 Exp Fluids (2014) 55:1720

1.7 2.4 2.8

(a) (b) (c)
2.6
1.6 2.2
2.4

ρ / ρ0
ρ / ρ0

0
ρ/ρ
1.5 2 2.2

2
1.4 1.8
1.8

1.3 1.6 1.6

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 0 1 2 3 4 5 6
z/D z/D z/D

Fig. 7 Influence of the order of the central-difference scheme on the finite difference, plus symbol 8th order finite difference. Note the
position and value of the local minimum and maximum values of difference in scaling of the vertical axis. a p0 ¼ 3:0 bars. b p0 ¼ 4:5
q=q0 on the symmetry-axis of the jet. Multiplication symbol 2nd order bars. c p0 ¼ 6:0 bars
finite difference, circle 4th order finite difference, square 6th order

Table 1 Comparison of the measured (Eq. 19) and theoretical reaching the outer shear layer of the jet, reflect inward to
(Eq. 20) values of the jet Mach number at the nozzle exit form compression waves. Due to the compression waves,
p0 (bar) Mjet;th Mjet;exp Deviation (%) the flow inside the jet is turned inward and the width of the
shock cell reduces again. At the point where the com-
2.5 1.15 1.18 2.61 pression waves coalesce, a shock wave is formed, leading
3.0 1.29 1.28 0.78 to the formation of the next shock cell, see Fig. 6c. This
3.5 1.40 1.41 0.71 process of jet internal pressure adaption continues in
4.0 1.49 1.48 0.67 downstream direction, until—due to friction—the pressure
4.5 1.57 1.56 0.64 inside the jet coincides with the ambient pressure.
5.0 1.65 1.65 0.00 In the following discussion, two characteristics of the
6.0 1.77 1.77 0.00 experimentally obtained jet diamond pattern will be com-
pared with analytical relations known from the literature.
These are the positions of the local minimum and maxi-
with the theoretical jet Mach number, calculated with the
mum axial values of the density field—hence the limits of
preset total to ambient pressure ratio in the nozzle settling
the shock cells—and the length of the shock cells.
chamber
 c=ðc1Þ 5.2.1 Position of the shock cell limits
p0 ðc  1Þ 2
NPR ¼ ¼ 1 þ Mjet;th ð20Þ
p 2
The limits of the shock cells are defined by the positions at
With the exception of the results for p0 ¼ 2:5 bars the which the axial components of the apparent displacement
Mach numbers of the jets obtained with the NF-BOS vectors converge, hence where the density on the jet
technique show a deviation of less than 1 % with respect to symmetry-axis reaches a local minimum, compare Fig. 6b
the theoretical jet Mach numbers for all investigated set- with 6c. The local maximum axial density values define the
tling chamber total pressures. Only for p0 ¼ 2:5 bars a centres of the shock cells, i.e. at those positions where the
deviation in Mach number of 2.6 % is found. For this axial components of the displacement vectors diverge. In
pressure, the free jet flow is in the transonic flow regime, Fig. 8, the experimentally obtained positions of the outer
resulting in absolute density variations that are not as limits (odd numbers on x-axis) and centres (even numbers
pronounced as for the higher Mach jet flows. on x-axis) of the shock cells are shown for various total
The shock cells that are present in Fig. 6c result from the pressures of the free jet. For each settling chamber pres-
alternating appearance of oblique and normal shock waves, sure, the values of the shock cell limits and cell centres
Prandtl–Meyer expansion waves and Prandtl–Meyer com- practically lie on a straight line. However, it will be shown
pression waves. Over these waves, the pressure in the jet is later that a slight decrease in the distance between two
adapted to the surrounding free-stream pressure. For un- subsequent shock cell limits occurs. An increase in total
derexpanded jets, Prandtl–Meyer expansion waves take pressure leads to stronger underexpanded jets. The sub-
place right after the nozzle exit, see Fig. 6b. The expansion sequent adaption of the internal pressure of the jet to the
waves turn the flow inside the jet outwards; hence the ambient pressure results in this case in a stronger Prandtl–
shock cell increases in width. The Prandtl–Meyer expan- Meyer expansion at the nozzle exit, hence the jet flow is
sion waves reflect at the symmetry-axis of the jet and, upon turned outward further. The compression waves will be

123
Exp Fluids (2014) 55:1720 Page 9 of 11 1720

6 6
p = 2.5 [bar]
0

p0 = 3.0 [bar]
5 5
p = 3.5 [bar]
0

p = 4.0 [bar]
0
4 4
p0 = 4,5 [bar]
th
p = 5.0 [bar]
6
jet

jet
p0 = 2.5 [bar] 0
z/D

z/D
3 3 p = 6.0 [bar]
p = 3.0 [bar] 0
0

p0 = 3.5 [bar] Theory eq. 21

th
2 2 5
p0 = 4.0 [bar]
th
4
p0 = 4,5 [bar] th
3
1 p = 5.0 [bar] 1
0 nd
2
p = 6.0 [bar]
0
1st
0 0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 1 2 3 4 5 6
No. of local minimum and maximum value of ρ / ρ0 NPR

Fig. 8 Position of the local minimum and maximum values of q=q0 Fig. 9 Dependency of the nozzle pressure ratio (NPR) on the positions
on the symmetry-axis of the jet for total pressures between p0 ¼ 2:5 of six local minimum values of q=q0 on the symmetry-axis of the jet
bars and p0 ¼ 6:0 bars nearest to the nozzle exit (z=Djet ¼ 0). The positions obtained by the
measurements for NPR between 2.5 and 6.0 are compared with Eq. (21)

stronger as well, leading to a larger spacing between the

shock cell limits and centres, compare, for example, the 2.5
curves for p0 ¼ 2:5 bars and p0 ¼ 6:0 bars in Fig. 8. p = 2.5 [bar]
0
p = 3.0 [bar]
The dependency of the position of the first six shock cell 0
p0 = 3.5 [bar]
2
limits (symmetry-axis of the jet with z ¼ 0 as the position p = 4.0 [bar]
0
p = 4,5 [bar]
of the nozzle exit) on the nozzle pressure ratio (NPR, 0
p = 5.0 [bar]
0
Eq. 20) is shown in Fig. 9 for the investigated settling 1.5 p = 6.0 [bar]
jet

chamber pressures. A clear increase in the axial position

L /D

with increasing NPR-value is observed for each shock cell

s

1
limit. Larger NPR-values lead to stronger underexpanded
jets and subsequent stronger expansion and compression
waves, due to which the shock cells become longer and 0.5

wider, as is explained above. This results in an increase in

the downstream position of the same shock cell limit and 0
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
growing interspacing between subsequent shock cell limits
No. of shock cell
for larger NPR. For each shock cell limit, the relation
between the nozzle pressure ratio and the axial position can Fig. 10 Lengths of the shock cells of the supersonic underexpanded
be given by the following semi-empirical equation jet for total pressures between p0 ¼ 2:5 bars and p0 ¼ 6:0 bars
z
¼ c1 lnðNPRÞ þ c2 ð21Þ
Djet
energy is gradually dissipated. This leads to a gradual
Here, c1 and c2 are constants that linearly depend on the decrease in the pressure difference between the ambient
number of the shock cell limits. gas and the jet flow, hence a decrease in the strength of the
compression and expansion waves and thus a decrease in
5.2.2 Shock cell length shock cell length.
Figure 11 presents the relation between the jet Mach
The shock cell length Ls is defined as the axial distance number at the nozzle exit and the shock cell length. In the
between two subsequent shock cell limits. In Fig. 10, the same figure, the Prandtl–Pack relation (Powell 2010)
non-dimensional shock cell lengths of the first shock cells Ls p qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2 1
in downstream direction after the nozzle exit are shown for ¼ Mjet ð22Þ
Djet l1
the investigated nozzle pressures. For every pressure, a
slight decrease in the length of subsequent shock cells is with l1 ¼ 2:405 is shown by the solid line. For increasing
observed. Due to friction created along the free boundary jet Mach numbers, a larger shock cell length is found.
of the jet, a turbulent shear layer is formed over which the Since an increase in the jet Mach number corresponds to an

123
1720 Page 10 of 11 Exp Fluids (2014) 55:1720

2 2
p = 2.5 [bar]
0
1.8 1.8
p = 3.0 [bar]
0

1.6 1.6 p = 3.5 [bar]

0

1.4 1.4 p = 4.0 [bar]

0

p = 4,5 [bar]
0
1.2 p0 = 2.5 [bar] 1.2

jet
jet

p0 = 5.0 [bar]

L /D
L /D

p = 3.0 [bar]
1 0 1 p0 = 6.0 [bar]
p0 = 3.5 [bar]

s
s

0.8 p = 4.0 [bar] 0.8 Theory eq. 25

0
p = 4,5 [bar] Theory eq. 27
0.6 0 0.6
p = 5.0 [bar]
0
0.4 p = 6.0 [bar] 0.4
0

Theory eq. 22 0.2

0.2
Theory eq. 24

0 0
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5
0.5
(NPR − NPRc)
(M2jet 0.5
− 1)

Fig. 11 Relation between the exit Mach jet number and the lengths of
the shock cells nearest to the nozzle exit. The lengths obtained by the
measurements for total pressures between p0 ¼ 2:5 bars and p0 ¼ 6:0
bars are compared with the analytical Prandtl–Pack relation Eqs. (22)
and (24)
Fig. 12 Relation between the nozzle pressure ratio (NPR) and the
lengths of the shock cells nearest to the nozzle exit. The lengths
obtained by the measurements for total pressures between p0 ¼ 2:5
bars and p0 ¼ 6:0 bars are compared with the theory by Emden Eqs.
(25) and (27)

Emden (1899) found in his measurements the following

increase in the nozzle pressure ratio (Eq. 20), a stronger relation between the nozzle pressure ratio and the shock
underexpanded jet is formed. In the section above, it was cell length
explained that for stronger underexpanded jets the length Ls pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
and width of the shock cells increase due to stronger Pra- ¼ kDjet NPR  NPRc ð25Þ
Djet
ndtl–Meyer expansion waves and compression waves.
A direct comparison between the experimentally Here, k is a numerical coefficient that depends on the
obtained results and the Prandtl–Pack relation shows an nozzle geometry and NPRc the critical value of the nozzle
increasing deviation with growing Mach number. The pressure ratio at which the speed of sound is reached at the
cause of this deviation lies in the accuracy with which the exit of the nozzle
jet Mach number can be computed from the density field  
obtained by the NF-BOS method. Because in this paper the c þ 1 ðc1Þ=c
NPRc ¼ ð26Þ
classical Abel inversion method is applied to obtain the 2
density distribution, noise may have been added to the In Fig. 12, the dependency of the shock cell length on the
results. This can lead to small errors err in the determi- nozzle pressure ratio is shown together with the relation of
nation of the jet Mach number. In this case the modified jet Emden. Since the coefficient NPRc is constant for all
0
Mach number, Mjet is given by investigated nozzle pressure ratios, the measured increase
0
Mjet ¼ Mjet ð1 þ err Þ ð23Þ in the shock cell lengths for higher nozzle pressure ratios
results directly from the stronger Prandtl–Meyer expansion
with err 1. Substituting this relation into Eq. (22) and waves and compression waves. Just as for the jet Mach
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
neglecting the higher order terms, the Prandtl–Pack relation number in Fig. 10, a linear relation between NPR and
becomes Ls =Djet is found. The theory by Emden (Eq. 25, with
0 1 k ¼ 0:61) predicts the experimental results to a reasonable
p q ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi 2
err Mjet C
Ls
¼ 2  1 þ p Bqffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð24Þ
extent. Hartmann and Lazarus (1941) derived a modifica-
Mjet @ A
Djet l1 l1 M2  1 tion of Emden’s theory
jet

Ls pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
This relation is shown in Fig. 11 by the dashed line for ¼ a þ b  kDjet NPR  NPRc ð27Þ
Djet
jerr j ¼ 0:07. The experimental results based on the modi-
fied Mach number show a good agreement with the Pra- For the data presented in the present study, a best fit is
ndtl–Pack relation, meaning that the jet Mach number is obtained for a ¼ 0:87 and b ¼ 0:74 as shown in Fig. 12
generally overpredicted by 7 %. by the dotted line.

123
Exp Fluids (2014) 55:1720
6 Conclusions
Standard BOS fails to provide reliable density fields when
applied in the near-field. For BOS set-ups, this near-field is
obtained when the distance between the studied Schlieren
object and the background dot pattern is maximum one
order of magnitude larger than the width of the Schlieren
object. This is, for example, the case for flows close to non-
transparent walls without the possibility of using mirrors
due to flow disturbances. The presented near-field BOS, a
modified version of the standard BOS, is capable of
quantitatively measuring these density fields even for very
small distances between the investigated flow field and the
background pattern.
The principle of the NF-BOS method was presented by
the simulation of a synthetic Schlieren experiment. Using
the principle of ray-tracing and the ring discretisation
method, the theoretical deflections and apparent shifts of an
axisymmetric jet with a random density distribution were
simulated. It was proven that, in general, the standard BOS
relations for transforming the measured apparent dis-
placement field into the refractive index field were valid in
the near-field as well. However, in case of NF-BOS, the
fixed correction factor of Ccorr ¼ 2 used for standard BOS
needed to be modified into a variable correction factor. It
was derived that this parameter was solely a function of the
external shape of the investigated density field and of the
distance between the flow field and the background pattern.
For the proof of principle of the NF-BOS technique, a
wedge prism was used that introduced a mean deflection of
the light rays of 1 . Reliable results were obtained with the
NF-BOS method, even for distances between wedge prism
and the background pattern as small as 10 mm. A direct
comparison between the experimentally obtained and the-
oretical apparent pattern shifts showed deviations less than
3 % for prism-to-background distances in the range of
10–400 mm.
The applicability of the NF-BOS technique to fluid
dynamics studies was shown by the measurement of a
density field of a supersonic underexpanded free jet at
various nozzle pressure ratios. The distance between the
background dot pattern and the jet flow was set to 10 mm,
hence at the same order as the width of the jet flow. With
the NF-BOS technique, the well-known diamond pattern of
supersonic jets was obtained with a good spatial resolution,
out of which the positions of the shock cell limits and the
shock cell lengths could be extracted. The accuracy of the
experimentally measured jet Mach numbers at the nozzle
exit was within 1 %. It was shown that the position of the
shock cell limits increased for growing nozzle pressure
ratios, whereas a slight decrease in two subsequent shock
cell limits occurred for constant NPR-values. A
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Page 11 of 11 1720
comparison of the measured shock cell lengths with the
theories by Prandtl–Pack and Emden showed good
agreement.
The present paper has presented the applicability of NF-
BOS to fluid mechanically related flows. The next step will
be to further reduce the distance between the flow field and
the background pattern in order to measure the variable
density field directly above the surface of a wind tunnel
object inside the high-pressure wind tunnel (DNW-HDG)
of the German–Dutch Wind Tunnels.
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