Statistical analysis of turbulence by single-exposure speckle photography

A new line-of-sight technique based on single exposure speckle photography is described that allows to measure the temperature fluctuations as well as the degree and direction of anisotropy of turbulence in a turbulent flow. To perform quantitative specklegram evaluations, a direct numerical simulation of the light tracing trough the turbulence is performed. Under assumption of geometrical optics the rays paths through the 3D turbulent field are computed from the ray equation. The 3D field of the index of refraction is prescribed on a numerical grid using data of direct numerical simulation of turbulent shear flows. As a result, the evaluation procedure of the 3D correlation function of turbulence reconstruction using 2D speckle photography data was developed and tested. An extension of the technique into a streak mode is described and an example of temporal evolution of turbulence in non-steady flow is presented.