Velocimetry in the context of "Velocity measurement"

Interferometry is a technique which uses the interference of superimposed waves to extract information. Interferometry typically uses electromagnetic waves and is an important investigative technique in the fields of astronomy, fiber optics, engineering metrology, optical metrology, oceanography, seismology, spectroscopy (and its applications to chemistry), quantum mechanics, nuclear and particle physics, plasma physics, biomolecular interactions, surface profiling, microfluidics, mechanical stress/strain measurement, velocimetry, optometry, and making holograms.

Interferometers are devices that extract information from interference. They are widely used in science and industry for the measurement of microscopic displacements, refractive index changes and surface irregularities. In the case with most interferometers, light from a single source is split into two beams that travel in different optical paths, which are then combined again to produce interference; two incoherent sources can also be made to interfere under some circumstances. The resulting interference fringes give information about the difference in optical path lengths. In analytical science, interferometers are used to measure lengths and the shape of optical components with nanometer precision; they are the highest-precision length measuring instruments in existence. In Fourier transform spectroscopy they are used to analyze light containing features of absorption or emission associated with a substance or mixture. An astronomical interferometer consists of two or more separate telescopes that combine their signals, offering a resolution equivalent to that of a telescope of diameter equal to the largest separation between its individual elements.

Time of flight (ToF) is the measurement of the time taken by an object, particle or wave (be it acoustic, electromagnetic, etc.) to travel a distance through a medium. This information can then be used to measure velocity or path length, or as a way to learn about the particle or medium's properties (such as composition or flow rate). The traveling object may be detected directly (direct time of flight, dToF, e.g., via an ion detector in mass spectrometry) or indirectly (indirect time of flight, iToF, e.g., by light scattered from an object in laser doppler velocimetry). Time of flight technology has found valuable applications in the monitoring and characterization of material and biomaterials, hydrogels included.

Particle tracking velocimetry (PTV) is a velocimetry method i.e. a technique to measure velocities and trajectories of moving objects. In fluid mechanics research these objects are neutrally buoyant particles that are suspended in fluid flow. As the name suggests, individual particles are tracked, so this technique is a Lagrangian approach, in contrast to particle image velocimetry (PIV), which is an Eulerian method that measures the velocity of the fluid as it passes the observation point, that is fixed in space. There are two experimental PTV methods:

• the two-dimensional (2-D) PTV. Measurements are made in a 2-D slice, illuminated by a thin laser sheet (a thin plane); a low density of seeded particles allows for tracking each of them individually for several frames.
• the three-dimensional particle tracking velocimetry (3-D PTV) is a distinctive experimental technique originally developed to study fully turbulent flows. It is now being used widely in various disciplines, ranging from structural mechanics research to medicine and industrial environments. It is based on a multiple camera-system in a stereoscopic arrangement, three-dimensional illumination of an observation volume, recording of the time sequence of stereoscopic images of optical targets (flow tracers illuminated particles), determining their instantaneous 3-D position in space by use of photogrammetric techniques and tracking their movement in time, thus obtaining a set of 3-D trajectories of the optical targets. Time-resolved three-dimensional particle tracking velocimetry is known as 4D-PTV.

Molecular tagging velocimetry (MTV) is a specific form of flow velocimetry, a technique for determining the velocity of currents in fluids such as air and water. In its simplest form, a single "write" laser beam is shot once through the sample space. Along its path an optically induced chemical process is initiated, resulting in the creation of a new chemical species or in changing the internal energy state of an existing one, so that the molecules struck by the laser beam can be distinguished from the rest of the fluid. Such molecules are said to be "tagged".

This line of tagged molecules is now transported by the fluid flow. To obtain velocity information, images at two instances in time are obtained and analyzed (often by correlation of the image intensities) to determine the displacement. If the flow is three-dimensional or turbulent the line will not only be displaced, it will also be deformed.