Design of experiments: a statistical tool for PIV uncertainty quantification

Abstract

A statistical tool called Design of Experiments (DOE) is introduced for uncertainty quantification in particle image velocimetry (PIV). DOE allows to quantify the total uncertainty as well as the systematic uncertainties arising from various experimental factors. The approach is based on measuring a quantity (e.g. time-averaged velocity from PIV) several times by varying the levels of the experimental factors which are known to affect the value of the measured quantity. In this way, using Analysis of Variances (ANOVA), the total variance in the measured quantity can be computed and hence the total uncertainty. Moreover, the analysis provides the individual variances for each of the experimental factors leading to the estimation of the systematic uncertainties from each factor and their contribution to the total uncertainty. The methodology is assessed for an experimental test case of the flow at the outlet of a ducted Boundary Layer Ingesting (BLI) propulsor to quantify the total uncertainty in time-averaged velocity from stereoscopic PIV measurements as well as the constituent systematic uncertainties due to the experimental factors, namely, camera aperture, inter-frame time separation, interrogation window size and stereoscopic camera angle.