Recognition and tracking of convective flow patterns using Wollaston shearing interferometry

Abstract The GeoFlow experiment on the ISS is designed to study convective flows in a spherical gap under microgravity conditions. The main challenge, however, is the visualization of the fluid flow especially under the safety requirements of the Columbus module. The Wollaston shearing interferometry unit of the Fluid Science Laboratory works by optical means alone and is therefore utilized as measurement device for temperature fluctuations. The resulting interferograms in terms of fringe patterns are the base for the presented advanced post-processing techniques. They are used to identify convective patterns, to track these structures and to reconstruct the inaccessible three-dimensional temperature field. A comparison between experimentally gained results and numerically calculated interferograms is given, too. We show that convective patterns are automatically recognized and tracked accurately in experimental images by means of the generalized structure tensor. Furthermore, generic numerical simulations are used to deduce the internal temperature distribution by comparison with interferograms from the experiment.