Introduction to Laser Doppler Velocimetry

Ken Kiger
Burgers Program For Fluid Dynamics
Turbulence School
College Park, Maryland, May 24-27

Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA)

Single-point optical velocimetry method

Study of the flow between rotating

impeller blades of a pump

3-D LDA Measurements on

a 1:5 Mercedes-Benz
E-class model car in wind tunnel

Phase Doppler Anemometry (PDA)

Single point particle sizing/velocimetry method

Droplet Size Distributions

Drop Size and Velocity
Measured in a Kerosene
measurements in an atomized
Stream of Moleten Metal Spray Produced by a Fuel Injector

Laser Doppler Anemometry

LDA
A high resolution - single point technique for velocity measurements in turbulent flows
A Back Scatter LDA System for One Velocity Component Measurement (Dantec Dynamics)

Basics

Seed flow with small tracer particles

Illuminate flow with one or more coherent, polarized laser beams to form a MV
Receive scattered light from particles passing through MV and interfere with additional light sources
Measurement of the resultant light intensity frequency is related to particle velocity

LDA in a nutshell
Benefits

Essentially non-intrusive
Hostile environments
Very accurate
No calibration
High data rates
Good spatial & temporal resolution

Limitations

Expensive equipment
Flow must be seeded with particles if none naturally exist
Single point measurement technique
Can be difficult to collect data very near walls

Review of Wave Characteristics

A
x

General wave propagation

x, t
A
k
x
t

A cos 2

= Amplitude
= wavenumber
= spatial coordinate
= time
= angular frequency
= phase

x,t

Re Ae i kx

2
c

2 c

Electromagnetic waves: coherence

Light is emitted in wavetrains
Short duration, t
Corresponding phase shift, (t); where may vary on scale t> t

E E o exp i kx

Light is coherent when the phase remains constant for

a sufficiently long time
Typical duration ( tc) and equivalent propagation length ( lc) over
which some sources remain coherent are:

Source
White light
Mercury Arc
Kr86 discharge lamp
Stabilized He-Ne laser

nom

550
546
606
633

(nm)

lc
8 m
0.3 mm
0.3 m
400 m

Interferometry is only practical with coherent light sources

Electromagnetic waves: irradiance

Instantaneous power density given by Poynting vector
Units of Energy/(Area-Time)

S c 2 oE B

S c oE 2

More useful: average over times longer than light freq.

Frequency Range

6.10 x 1014

1 2
f t dt
T t T2

5.20 x 1014

I
3.80 x 1014

2
T

c o
E E
2

c o 2
E0
2

LDA: Doppler effect frequency shift

Overall Doppler shift due two separate changes
The particle sees a shift in incident light frequency due to particle motion
Scattered light from particle to stationary detector is shifted due to particle
motion

e b

e s

k
k

LDA: Doppler shift, effect I

Frequency Observed by Particle
The first shift can itself be split into two effects
(a) the number of wavefronts the particle passes in a time t, as though the
waves were stationary

u
e b

u eb t

Number of wavefronts particle passes

during t due to particle velocity:

k
k

u e b t

LDA: Doppler shift, effect I

Frequency Observed by Particle
The first shift can itself be split into two effects
(b) the number of wavefronts passing a stationary particle position over the
same duration, t

e b

c t
Number of wavefronts that pass a
stationary particle during t due to the
wavefront velocity:

c t

k
k

LDA: Doppler shift, effect I

The net effect due to a moving observer w/ a
stationary source is then the difference:

Number of wavefronts that pass a

moving particle during t due to
combined velocity (same as using
relative velocity in particle frame):

Net frequency observed by

moving particle

c t

fp

u e b t

# of wavefront s
t
u e b
c
1
c
u e b
f0 1
c

LDA: Doppler shift, effect II

An additional shift happens when the light gets scattered by the particle
and is observed by the detector
This is the case of a moving source and stationary
u detector (classic train whistle
problem)

u es t

es

receiver
lens

c t

Distance a scattered wave front would travel

during t in the direction of detector, if u
were 0:
Due to source motion, the distance is
changed by an amount:

c t

u e s t

Therefore, the effective scattered

wavelength is:
net distance traveled by wave
s

number of waves emitted

c t u e s t
f p t

c u e s
fp

LDA: Doppler shift, I & II combined

Combining the two effects gives:
f obs

cf p

c
s

c u e s

u e b
c
u e s
1
c

fp
u e s
1
c

f0

For u << c, we can approximate

f obs

u e b
f0 1
c

u e s
1
c

u e b
u e s
f0 1
1
c
c
f0 1
f0

1
u e s e b
c
f0
u e s e b
c

u e s
c

LDA: problem with single source/detector

Single beam frequency shift depends on:
velocity magnitude
Velocity direction
observation angle

f obs

f0
u e s e b
c

f0

Additionally, base frequency is quite high

O[1014] Hz, making direct detection quite difficult

Solution?
Optical heterodyne
Use interference of two beams or two detectors to create a beating effect, like two
slightly out of tune guitar strings, e.g.
1
cos

Need to repeat for optical waves

E1 Eo1 cos k1 r 1t

E2

Eo 2 cos k 2 r

t cos

cos

cos

Optical Heterodyne
Repeat, but allow for different frequencies
I
I

c o
E1 E2
2
c o 2
E o1
2

c o 2
E o1
2

c o 2
E o1
2

2
E o2

E1 E01 exp i k1x

E1

E2

E2

E 01 exp i

2
E o2
2E 01E 02

2
E o2
2E 01E 02 cos

E02 exp i k2 x

E 02 exp i

exp i

I AC

E 01 exp i

exp i

E 02 exp i

E02 exp i

E01 exp i

c o 2
2
E o1 E o2
2E o1 E o2 cos k1 k 2 r
2
1
Io1 Io2 2 Io1Io2 cos k1 k 2 r
2
I PED

How do you get different scatter

frequencies?

For a single beam

fs

f0

f0
u e s e b
c

Frequency depends on directions of es and eb

Three common methods have been used

Reference beam mode (single scatter and single beam)
Single-beam, dual scatter (two observation angles)
Dual beam (two incident beams, single observation location)

Dual beam method

Real MV formed by two beams

Beam crossing angle
Scattering angle

Forward Scatter
Configuration

Dual beam method (cont)

f s ,1

f0

f s,2

f0

f0
u e s ,1 e b ,1
c
f0
u e s , 2 e b , 2
c

f0
u e b , 2 e b,1
c

It

Note that
so:

(e b,1 e b,2 )

u xg

2sin( / 2) x g

2 sin

fD

Measure the component of u in the x g direction

1
I o1 I o 2 2 I o1 I o 2 cos k 1 k 2 r
2

4 sin

u xg t

Fringe Interference description

Interference fringes seen as standing waves
Particles passing through fringes scatter light in regions of
constructive interference

2 sin

u xs
f
2

Adequate explanation for particles smaller than individual fringes

Gaussian beam effects

A single laser beam profile

-Power distribution in MV will be Gaussian shaped
-In the MV, true plane waves occur only at the focal point
-Even for a perfect particle trajectory the strength of the
Doppler burst will vary with position
Figures from Albrecht et. al., 2003

Non-uniform beam effects

Particle Trajectory
Centered
Off Center
DC

AC

DC+AC

- Off-center trajectory results in weakened signal visibility

-Pedestal (DC part of signal) is removed by a high pass filter after
photomultiplier
Figures from Albrecht et. al., 2003

Multi-component dual beam

^
xg

^
xb

Three independent directions

Two Component Probe Looking

Toward the Transmitter

Sign ambiguity
Change in sign of velocity has no effect on frequency
I

2I o

2 I o cos k1 k 2 r 2

u xs

Xg

uxg> 0

beam 2

beam 1
uxg< 0

2 sin

fD

f Dt

Velocity Ambiguity
Equal frequency beams
No difference with velocity direction cannot detect reversed flow

Solution: Introduce a frequency shift into 1 of the two

beams
Bragg Cell

fb2 = fbragg + fb

Xg

fb = 5.8 e14

fb1 = fb

f s ,1
f s ,2
fD

fb
u (e s ,1 e b ,1 )
c
f
( fb fbragg ) b u (e s ,2 e b ,2 )
c
fb
fbragg
u (e b ,1 e b ,2 ) fbragg
c

New Signal

fb

I
fD0

Hypothetical shift
Without Bragg Cell

2 E012 cos( 2 { f D 0

f bragg }t )

If fD < fbragg then u < 0

Frequency shift: Fringe description

Different frequency causes an apparent velocity in
fringes
Effect result of interference of two traveling waves as slightly
different frequency

fD s-1

Directional ambiguity (cont)

fbragg

uxg (m/s)
uxg

( fD0

fbragg )

2sin( / 2)

nm, fbragg = 40 MHz and = 20

Upper limit on positive velocity limited only by
time response of detector

Velocity bias sampling effects

LDA samples the flow based on
Rate at which particles pass through the detection volume
Inherently a flux-weighted measurement
Simple number weighted means are biased for unsteady flows and need
to be corrected

Consider:
Uniform seeding density (# particles/volume)
Flow moves at steady speed of 5 units/sec for 4 seconds (giving 20
samples) would measure:

5 * 20
5
20

Flow that moves at 8 units/sec for 2 sec (giving 16 samples), then 2

units/sec for 2 second (giving 4 samples) would give

16 * 8 4 * 2
20

6.8

Laser Doppler Anemometry

Velocity Measurement Bias

U x ,i
Ux

i 1

n
x

U x ,i U x
i 1

n
i
N

i 1

Mean Velocity

i 1

nth moment

Bias Compensation Formulas

- The sampling rate of a volume of fluid containing particles increases

with the velocity of that volume
- Introduces a bias towards sampling higher velocity particles

Phase Doppler Anemometry

The overall phase difference
is proportional to particle diameter

2 ni D

, , ,n p ,ni

Multiple Detector
Implementation

The geometric factor,

- Has closed form solution for p = 0 and 1 only
- Absolute value increases with
elevation angle
relative to 0)
- Is independent of np for reflection
Figures from Dantec