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Metrology for World Class Manufacturing Awards 2001
Professor Ralph Tatam and Dr David Nobes have won the prestigious NPL Metrology for World Class Manufacturing Awards: Frontier Science and Measurement for their entry entitled Three Component Planar Velocimetry Measurements using Imaging Fibre Bundles.
From left to right: Lord David Sainsbury (Minister for Science and Innovation), Prof Ralph Tatam and Dr David Nobes at the Department for Trade & Industry (DTI) in London discussing the PDV technology
In the opinion of the award judges, the proposal could result in a highly commercial instrument. The award judges commented that the researchers have “introduced a high degree of innovation resulting in an exotic and versatile system with wide ranging applications”.
This research programme, which is supported by the EPSRC under the “Instrument Development Initiative” and a HEFCE JREI equipment grant, is aimed at developing an instrument capable of measuring velocity in turbomachinery applications. The instrument that has been developed is capable of measuring the three components of velocity in a plane, defined by a laser light sheet, by viewing the light scattered from particles in the flow from three different viewing directions. Using a pulsed laser “freezes” the flow and enables instantaneous and time-averaged measurements to be collected in very short timescales. The novel use of imaging fibre bundles enables the use of conventional lenses to view the light sheet in external aerodynamic applications such as windtunnels or the use of endoscopes to view internal flows such as those found in turbomachinery applications. The principles of the technique are discussed in more detail here.
Professor Tatam and Dr Nobes have worked closely with Professor Robin Elder to develop the instrument for turbomachinery applications and have recently obtained the first measurement of this type from inside a running compressor.
The NPL Frontier Science and Measurement award.