3D reconstruction of a compressible flow by synchronized multi-camera BOS

This paper investigates the application of a 3D density reconstruction from a limited number of background-oriented schlieren (BOS) images as recently proposed in Nicolas et al. (Exp Fluids 57(1):1–21, 2016), to the case of compressible flows, such as underexpanded jets. First, an optimization of a 2D BOS setup is conducted to mitigate the intense local blurs observed in raw BOS images and caused by strong density gradients present in the jets. It is demonstrated that a careful choice of experimental conditions enables one to obtain sharp deviation fields from 2D BOS images. Second, a 3DBOS experimental bench involving 12 synchronized cameras is specifically designed for the present study. It is shown that the 3DBOS method can provide physically consistent 3D reconstructions of instantaneous and mean density fields for various underexpanded jet flows issued into quiescent air. Finally, an analysis of the density structure of a moderately underexpanded jet is conducted through phase-averaging, highlighting the development of a large-scale coherent structure associated with a jet shear layer instability.