Liquid Crystal Thermography and Image Processing in Heat and Fluid Flow Experiments

This paper describes new methods which can determine quantitatively two-dimensional temperature distributions on a surface and in a fluid from colour records obtained using a thermosensitive liquid crystal material combined with image processing. Application-type experiments have been carried out both to visualise the complex temperature distribution over a cooled surface disturbed by different solid obstacles, and also to investigate temperature and flow patterns in a rectangular cavity for natural convection.