Background extraction from double-frame PIV images

This study presents a simple image pre-processing scheme to extract background information from double-frame particle image velocimetry (PIV) images. Everything that stays stagnant in the image (e.g., image background and light reflections from stationary objects) is assumed to be a source of disturbance and is removed by subtracting the second frame of the image pair from the first frame. This yields a single frame difference image, which is transferred back to a background extracted double-frame image. After the procedure the background in the image does not correlate with itself anymore and therefore a bias error in PIV analysis towards zero displacement is avoided. The simulations show that the procedure conserves the profile of tracer particle images when a displacement between the frames is larger than a particle image size. The performance of this procedure is emphasized with various examples, and extensions of the procedure are introduced. The extended procedure extracts background objects that move between the image frames, e.g. dispersed phase particles in a two-phase flow or laser light sheet reflections from moving objects.