Theory:

Smoke flow visualization is a qualitative measurement technique used to analyze flow behavior.
The smoke follows the air currents, allowing the observer to visualize the flow. A smoke generator
is coupled with an air bender and a settling chamber. Fro this chamber smoke is fed to a smoke
injector, which has the shape of an airfoil with a number of small diameter tubes placed at the
trailing edge. The smoke exit the injector as a sheet. The smoke sheet moves with the air and
deforms, describing the flow pattern. The ability to see flow patterns on a model often gives insight
into a solution to an aerodynamic problem.

Smoke Generator:
Smoke for flow visualization purposes may be generated by burning tobacco, wood, and wheat
straw, or by vaporizing hydrocarbon oils like white mineral oil or propylene glycol.
Regardless of the source of the smoke used, it is essential that the smoke meets the following
criteria:
● It must be able to track the flow field accurately. In other words, the smoke particles must
be sufficiently small that their motion reflects the motion of the flow.
● It must not significantly affect the flow field under investigation.
● It must possed high reflective properties.
● It must be non-toxic.

Smoke-wire technique
Here, the smoke is produced by vaporizing oil from a fine wire heated by an electric current. Most
metals with sufficient strength and electrical resistivity can be used, but the three most commonly
used wires are made of stainless steel, nichrome, or tungsten. The size of the wire is dictated to
some extent by the flow speed. For low-speed applications, it is better to use a smaller diameter
wire because a smaller wire produces smoke which is sharper. At higher speeds, a larger diameter
wire is recommended because its larger surface area can maintain a higher smoking rate, and since
the wires are typically stretched taut, it will be able to accommodate the required tension at a
higher temperature. There are a variety of oils that can be used to produce smoke filaments,
including paraffin, kerosene, lubricating oil, silicone oil, and model train oil.

TiCl4 (Titanium tetrachloride):

The technique makes use of the fact that when TiCl4 is exposed to moist air, it develops dense white
hydrochloric acid fumes and minute particles of titanium dioxide according to the reaction:

TiCl4 + 2H2O = TiO2 + 4HCl

TiCl4 is inexpensive and can be purchased commercially. However, hydrochloric acid fumes are
toxic and can pose a serious health hazard. Experiments should therefore be carried out in a well-
ventilated environment, and if possible the fumes should be exhausted to the outside of the
laboratory.
Smoke Injector:
Smoke can be injected fr the surface or dispersed with a hollow wand that can be moved through
the flow field, in the case of our experiment, the smoke was injected with help of a series of small
vertical tubes placed enough far away fro the test subject. The generated smoke was allowed to
settle down in a large chamber before the smoke is extracted and used for visualization.

Joukowski's 'stagnation hypothesis' tells us that a clockwise circulation is required, but not how it is
generated. In an ideal fluid, there is no process by which circulation can be generated-nor, for that
matter, any process by which circulation, once established, can be changed. Frederick W.
Lanchester (1878- 1946) and Ludwig Prandtl (1875-1953) first explained the production of
circulation around an aerofoil as follows. The initial separation of a real fluid at the trailing edge
causes fluid on the upper surface to move from the stagnation point S2 towards the edge. This flow
is in the opposite direction to that of the ideal fluid, and consequently, an eddy, known as the
starting vortex, is formed. This starting vortex is rapidly washed away from the edge but, in leaving
the aerofoil, it generates an equal and opposite circulation around the aerofoil. In this way, the net
circulation around the dotted curve in Fig. 10.32 remains zero. This must be so to satisfy a theorem
by William Thomson, later Lord Kelvin, (1824- 1907): in a frictionless fluid the circulation, around a
closed curve that moves with the fluid so as always to enclose the same particles, does not change
with time. The circulation around the aerofoil, produced as a reaction to the starting vortex, brings
S2 nearer to the trailing edge. Similar starting vortices produce increased circulation around the
aerofoil until S2 reaches the stable position at the edge (Fig.l0.32c). The condition for the
circulation in ideal flow to bring S2 to the trailing edge is known as the KuttaJoukowski condition.
Experimental observations have amply confirmed the existence of starting. Whenever conditions
are changed, either by an alteration in upstream velocity or in the angle of attack, fresh vortices are
formed, and the circulation around the aerofoil takes on a new value. Once they have left the
aerofoil, the starting vortices have no further effect on the flow around it, and they are ultimately
dissipated by vicious action.
Restricting the discussion to two-dimensional flow, we may consider as an example the flow past an
infinite1y long, circular cylinder of diameter d, with its axis perpendicular to the flow. We suppose
other solid surfaces to be far enough from the cylinder not to affect the flow near it. For very low
values of Re = u∞d/ν (say Re < 0·5) the inertia forces are negligible, and the streamlines come
together behind the cylinder as indicated in Fig. 8.10a. If Re is increased to the range 2-30 the
boundary layer separates symmetrically from the two sides at the positions S, S (Fig. 8.l0b), and two
eddies are formed which rotate in opposite directions. At these Reynolds numbers the eddies
remain unchanged in position, their energy is maintained by the flow from the separated boundary
layer. Behind the eddies, however, the main streamlines come together, and the length of the wake
is limited. With the increase of Re, the eddies elongate as shown in (c) but the arrangement is
unstable and at Re ~ 40-70 (for a circular cylinder) a periodic oscillation of the wake is observed.
Then, at a certain limiting value of Re (usually about 90 for a circular cylinder in unconfined flow),
the eddies break off from each side of the cylinder alternately and are washed downstream. This
limiting value of Re depends on the turbulence of the oncoming flow, on the shape of the cylinder
(which, in general, may not be circular), and on the nearness of other solid surfaces. In a certain
range of Re above the limiting value, eddies are continuously shed alternately from the two sides of
the cylinder and, as a result, they form two rows of vortices in its wake, the center of a vortex in one
row being opposite the point midway between the centers of consecutive vortices in the other row.
This arrangement of vortices is known as a vortex street or vortex trail. The energy of the vortices
is, of course, ultimately consumed by viscosity, and beyond a certain distance from the cylinder, the
regular pattern disappears.