Schlieren and Shadowgraph Methods in Heat and Mass Transfer lays out the fundamentals of refractive index based imaging techniques, optical configurations, image analysis, and three dimensional reconstructions. The present monograph aims at temperature and concentration measurements in transparent media using ray bending effects in a variable refractive index field. Data analysis procedure for three-dimensional reconstruction of temperature and concentration field using images at different view angles is presented. Test cases illustrating the validation of the quantitative analysis procedure are presented.

Schlieren and Shadowgraph Methods in Heat and Mass Transfer lays out the fundamentals of refractive index based imaging techniques, optical configurations, image analysis, and three dimensional reconstructions. The present monograph aims at temperature and concentration measurements in transparent media using ray bending effects in a variable refractive index field. Data analysis procedure for three-dimensional reconstruction of temperature and concentration field using images at different view angles is presented. Test cases illustrating the validation of the quantitative analysis procedure are presented.

Schlieren and shadowgraph techniques are basic and valuable tools in various scientific and engineering disciplines. They allow us to see the invisible: the optical inhomogeneities in transparent media like air, water, and glass that otherwise cause only ghostly distortions of our normal vision. These techniques are discussed briefly in many books and papers, but there is no up-to-date complete treatment of the subject before now. The book is intended as a practical guide for those who want to use these methods, as well as a resource for a broad range of disciplines where scientific visualization is important. The colorful 400-year history of these methods is covered in an extensive introductory chapter accessible to all readers.

The method has been applied to various types of configurations in several wind-tunnel investigations conducted by the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics at Mach numbers up to 4, and in all cases the calculated roughness height caused premature boundary-layer transition for the range of test conditions.

Imaging Heat and Mass Transfer Processes: Visualization and Analysis applies Schlieren and shadowgraph techniques to complex heat and mass transfer processes. Several applications are considered where thermal and concentration fields play a central role. These include vortex shedding and suppression from stationary and oscillating bluff bodies such as cylinders, convection around crystals growing from solution, and buoyant jets. Many of these processes are unsteady and three dimensional. The interpretation and analysis of images recorded are discussed in the text.