PIV measurements of the time-averaged flow velocity downstream of flow conditioners in a pipeline

The flow downstream of three different flow conditioners, a tube bundle and two perforated plates, was investigated by measuring the time-averaged, axial velocity component with Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The conditioners were exposed to the flow disturbed by a 90° out-of-plane double-bend. The experiments were performed with air flow through a pipeline of 100 mm i.d. and at Reynolds numbers between 100 000 and 200 000. The axial development of the velocity profiles, without and with conditioner, is documented, and the performance of the three devices in conditioning the disturbed flow can be compared. Particular attention is given to the determination of time-averaged velocity values by means of PIV.