Detailed Investigation of Solute Mixing in Pipe Joints through High Speed Photography

Investigation of turbulent mixing in pipe joints has been a topic of recent research interest. These investigations have relied on experimental results with downstream sensors to determine the bulk characteristics of mixing in pipe joints. High fidelity computational fluid dynamics models have also been employed to examine the fine scale physics of the mixing within the joint geometry. To date, high resolution imaging of experimental conditions within the pipe joint has not been reported. Here, we introduce high speed photography as a tool to accomplish this goal. High speed photography applied to clear pipe joints with the necessary image processing can provide qualitative and quantitative insights into mixing processes. A limitation of this approach is that it provides two-dimensional images of a three-dimensional process.