Simultaneous 3D location and size measurement of bubbles and sand particles in a flow using interferometric particle imaging.

We present a system to characterize a triphasic flow in a 3D volume (air bubbles and solid irregular particles in water) using only one CCD sensor. A cylindrical interferometric out-of-focus imaging setup is used to determine simultaneously the 3D position and the size of bubbles and irregular sand particles in a flow. The 3D position of the particles is deduced from the ellipticity of their out-of-focus image. The size of bubbles is deduced from analysis of interference fringes. The characteristics of irregular sand particles are obtained from analysis of their speckle-like pattern. Experiments are confirmed by simulations.