Free-Surface Velocity Measurement Using Direct Sensor Orientation-Based STIV

Particle image velocimetry (PIV) is a quantitative flow visualization technique, which greatly improves the ability to characterize various complex flows in laboratory and field environments. However, the deployment of reference objects or ground control points (GCPs) for velocity calibration is still a challenge for in situ free-surface velocity measurements. By combining space-time image velocimetry (STIV) with direct sensor orientation (DSO) photogrammetry, a laser distance meter (LDM)-supported photogrammetric device is designed, to realize the GCPs-free surface velocity measurement under an oblique shooting angle. The velocity calibration with DSO is based on the collinear equation, while the lens distortion, oblique shooting angle, water level variation, and water surface slope are introduced to build an imaging measurement model with explicit physical meaning for parameters. To accurately obtain the in situ position and orientations of the camera utilizing the LDM and its embedded tilt sensor, the camera’s intrinsic parameters and relative position within the LDM are previously calibrated with a planar chessboard. A flume experiment is designed to evaluate the uncertainty of optical flow estimation and velocity calibration. Results show that the proposed DSO-STIV has good transferability and operability for in situ measurements. It is superior to propeller current meters and surface velocity radars in characterizing shallow free-surface flows; this is attributed to its non-intrusive, whole-field, and high-resolution features. In addition, the combined uncertainty of free-surface velocity measurement is analyzed, which provides an alternative solution for error assessment when comparing measurement failures.