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Fluid Flow Analysis, Description and Control from Image Sequences

The FLUMINANCE research group is dedicated to the study of methods for the measurement, the analysis or the control of fluid flows from image sequences. The group aims at providing in the one hand image sequence methods devoted to the analysis and description of fluid flows and in the other hand physically consistent models and operational tools to extract meaningful features characterizing or describing the observed flow and enabling decisions or action. Such a twofold goal is of major interest for the inspection, the analysis and the monitoring of complex fluid flows, but also for control purpose of specific flows involved in industrial problems.

The scientific objectives of the project decompose in three main themes:

• Characterization of fluid flow from images. We aim here at providing accurate measurements and consistent analysis of complex fluid flows through image analysis techniques. The application domain ranges here from industrial processes and experimental fluid mechanics to environmental and life sciences. This theme includes also the use of non-conventional imaging techniques such as Schlieren techniques, Shadowgraphs, holography. The objective will be here to go towards 3D dense velocity measurements.
• Coupling dynamical model and image data. We focus here on the study, through image data, of complex and partially known fluid flows involving complex boundary conditions, multi phase fluids, fluids and structures interaction problems. Our credo is that image analysis can provide sufficiently fine observations on small and medium scales to construct models which, applied at medium and large scale, account accurately for a wider range of the dynamics scales.
• Control and optimization of turbulent flows. We are interested here on active control and more precisely on closed-loop control. The main idea is to extract reliable image features to act on the flow. This approach is well known in the robot control community, it is called visual servoing. More generally, it is a technique to control a dynamic system from image features.

The analysis of geophysical flows in environmental sciences and flows involved in experimental fluid mechanics are the principal application domains of the group.