Rectification of Image Velocity Results (RIVeR): A simple and user-friendly toolbox for large scale water surface Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and Particle Tracking Velocimetry (PTV)

Abstract

LSPIV (Large Scale Particle Image Velocimetry) and LSPTV (Large Scale Particle Tracking Velocimetry) are used as relatively low-cost and non-intrusive techniques for water-surface velocity analysis and flow discharge measurements in rivers or large-scale hydraulic models. This paper describes a methodology based on state-of-the-art tools (for example, that apply classical PIV/PTV analysis) resulting in large-scale surface-flow characterization according to the first operational version of the RIVeR (Rectification of Image Velocity Results). RIVeR is developed in Matlab and is designed to be user-friendly. RIVeR processes large-scale water-surface characterization such as velocity fields or individual trajectories of floating tracers. This work describes the wide range of application of the techniques for comparing measured surface flows in hydraulic physical models to flow discharge estimates for a wide range of flow events in rivers (for example, low and high flows).