Projected Background-Oriented Schlieren Imaging

About this technology

Overview

Inventors at NASA's Langley Research Center (LaRC) have developed a new background-oriented schlieren (BOS) imaging technique. The new technique enables vibration-tolerant, real-time, and reference-free BOS imaging for scientific investigations or industrial flow monitoring. Typically, BOS imaging requires a physical pattern on a retroreflective surface within the flow of interest to visualize that flow through changes in the pattern due to density changes between the pattern and a camera. Here, the BOS imaging technique does not require a physical pattern within the flow, and it is instead projected through the flow onto a retroreflective surface and imaged by a camera. Projecting the pattern allows the pattern to be changed mid-measurement and reduces the cost of BOS imaging for a variety of flow visualization applications.