Using microencapsulated fluorescent dyes for simultaneous measurement of temperature and velocity fields

In this paper, a novel particle image thermometry method based on microcapsules filled with a fluorescent dye solution is described. The microcapsules consist of a liquid core of hexadecane in which the dye is dissolved and a solid polymer shell. The combination of a temperature-sensitive dye (Pyrromethene 597-8C9) and a dye showing a relatively smaller temperature sensitivity (Pyrromethene 567) in hexadecane makes application of the ratiometric LIF possible. This is necessary to compensate for fluctuations of the illuminating pulsed Nd:YAG laser (532 nm) as well as the different particle sizes. The applicability of this measurement technique is demonstrated for a cubic test cell (10 × 10 × 10 mm3) with flow and temperature fields driven by natural convection and a capillary tube (1.16 mm inner diameter) inducing a temperature gradient and a Hagen–Poiseuille velocity profile. For the first case, a light sheet illumination is used making two optical accesses necessary. In the second case an inverted microscope is used, so only one optical access is needed and a volume illumination is applied. The technique facilitates high-resolution measurements (first case: 79 × 79 μm2; second case: 8 × 8 μm2). Although the measurement uncertainty is high compared to LIF measurements with dissolved dyes, temperature fields can be reproduced very well, and the experimental results are in good agreement with numerical computations.