Visual Simulation of Experimental Oil-Flow Visualization by Spot Noise Images from Numerical Flow Simulation

Comparative visualization of data from different sources provides useful presentations to highlight similarities or differences. Such methods are valuable for comparing results from numerical flow simulation with images taken during windtunnel experiments. The experimental flow visualization technique represents the surface flow field with oil streaks. We visualized the numerical surface flow field using the spot noise technique. The flow data are pre-processed and the parameters of the spot noise texture are tuned to enhance similarity of the resulting images. The result is a ‘visual simulation’, based mainly on the choice of the quantities to be visualized and the mapping of these quantities to the spot noise parameters. Analysis of the relation between the pre-processing steps and the visualization parameters allows conclusions about the important mechanisms in the experimental flow visualization technique. Besides the comparison of numerical data and the windtunnel experiment, the comparative visualization also provides insight into the visualization techniques involved.