Video and Photographic Monitoring

Introduction

All of the test facilities at ARA have a variety of photographic and video services at their disposal to support the test programmes. These range from standard monitoring systems to more complex flow visualisation systems. Techniques employed are dependent upon customer requirement and the individual facility capability.

Facilities

• On-site specialist staff trained in scientific photographic and video capture.
• Standard live video monitoring, recorded to hard disc in full dv avi format.
• High resolution configuration photography showing the latest model build under test.
• Oilflow visualisation, recorded by video, remotely operated digital stills and post run on high resolution digital stills.
• Post run photographs of acenaphthene sublimation tests.
• Recording of tuft visualisation techniques.
• Shadowgraph imaging.
• Schlieren imaging (not available in TWT).
• Macro photography and photomicrography.
• Low light imaging for use with fibre optic tests e.g. to determine wing twist.
• Crack detection photography.
• Publicity photography and video creation.

Video Services

The video system in the TWT is capable of recording 6 separate camera views directly onto hard disc storage for instant playback analysis. These views comprise a mixture of cameras, some that are user controllable from the control room during the test and others that are set to the customer requirements and then fixed for the duration of the test.

All the recordings have overlaid titles displaying the full test conditions in real time, such as Mach number and angle of incidence. A selection of these views can also be seen in the TWT customer room as a live feed. Post test these are transferred to electronic media and delivered to the customer.

Digital Stills Capture System

The digital stills capture system is operated remotely from the control room. The current system offers the following features:

• 5Mp digital image capture.
  
• Instant transfer of images to both the control room and the customer PC.
  
• Archive back-up of images as they are transferred from the tunnel to the control room.
  
• A file naming convention that identifies full test conditions, plus time, date and camera used.
  
• Up to 6 cameras currently available for positioning based upon customer requirement.
  
• Capability to add further cameras if required.
  
• ARA written software interface (Windows based) to control all camera functions remotely, capture, transfer and archive the images.

Historical Note

The very first film cameras used for this purpose were manufactured by a company called Otto Berning & Co. Since those early days ARA has used a variety of cameras from Exacta, Ricoh, Nikon and now Olympus.