Photo of the Week: Projected Background-Oriented Schlieren Imaging

Inventors at Langley Research Center have developed a new background-oriented schlieren (BOS) imaging technique. The new technique enables vibration-tolerant, real-time, reference-free BOS imaging for scientific investigations or industrial flow monitoring. This new technique allows BOS imaging technique does not require a physical pattern within the flow, and it is instead projected through the flow onto a retroreflective surface that is then imaged by a camera. Projecting the pattern allows the pattern to be changed mid-measurement and may lessen the cost of BOS imaging for a variety of flow visualization applications.

Photo Credit: NASA Langley Research Center