NASA's Method of Making Dye-Doped Polystyrene Microparticles

Polymeric particles are used extensively for seeding airflows in wind tunnels, biological and histological staining, among other applications. For wind tunnel applications, particle image velocimetry is often used to determine the interaction of various models and surfaces with surrounding airflows. Measurements near the wall are particularly relevant and unfortunately exceptionally challenging due to the large level of background noise arising from reflection of incident light off the surface of the model being studied. Thus, the ability to seed the airflow with a material that can be used to accurately portray the airflow properties (i.e., minimal particle lag) while enabling near wall measurements with improved signal to noise ratio is of high interest to wind tunnel researchers.

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https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/LA...

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