Module 5: Schlieren and Shadowgraph
  Lecture 34: Color schlieren technique
 

Growth of a potassium dihydrogen phosphate (KDP) crystal from its aqueous solution has been considered under forced convection conditions. The KDP crystal is grown in a top hanging geometry. Forced convection conditions are created by rotating the crystal about a vertical axis. The rotational rpm is varied in a cycle, creating an accelerated rotation cycle (ARC) paradigm. The effect of varying the rotational rpm on the concentration field around the crystal was investigated. Mach-Zehnder interferometry was adopted as an optical technique to image the evolving concentration fields. Six different experiments were performed to obtain the specific set of time periods and rotation rates of the acceleration cycle that result in a uniform concentration field around the growing crystal. The Reynolds number, an index of the strength of forced convection was kept at 1625 in all the experiments. The optimized parameters of the accelerated rotation cycle were found to be as follows: maximum rotation rate of 32 RPM, spin up period = 40 s, spin down period = 40 s, steady period = 40 s, and stationary period = 40 s. Under these conditions, the concentration field around the crystal is nearly uniform, as seen by a nearly circular dark fringe enclosing the crystal in the video.