A laser Doppler velocimeter has been developed that uses two of the colors emitted from an argon-ion laser for the simultaneous measurement of orthogonal velocities. Designed for use in a 2.13-m by 3.05-m wind tunnel, it is capable of traversing its focal volume across spatially unstable flows at scan speeds of up to 1.5 m/sec. Its optical layout and principles of operation are discussed, and the data from a typical traversal of a trailing wing-tip vortex are presented.

Laser Doppler anemometers (LDAs) that are arranged to measure nonorthogonal velocity components (from which orthogonal components are computed through transformation equations) are more susceptible to calibration and sampling errors than are systems with uncoupled channels. In this paper uncertainty methods and estimation theory are used to evaluate, respectively, the systematic and statistical errors that are present when such devices are applied to the measurement of mean velocities in turbulent flows. Statistical errors are estimated for two-channel LDA data that are either correlated or uncorrelated. For uncorrelated data the directional uncertainty of the measured velocity vector is considered for applications where mean streamline patterns are desired.

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The signal visibility characteristics of a dual beam laser anemometer operated in a backscatter mode have been investigated both experimentally and analytically. The analysis is based on Mie's electromagnetic scattering theory for spherical particles and is exact within the limitations of the scattering theory. It is shown that the signal visibility is a function of the ratio of the particle diameter to the fringe spacing in a certain, restricted case; but more generally it also depends on the Mie scattering size parameter, refractive index, the illuminating beam polarization, and the size, shape, and location of the light collecting aperture. The character of backscatter signal visibility differs significantly from the forward scatter case, and it is concluded that backscatter measurements of particle diameters using the visibility sizing technique may not always be possible. Restrictions on the forward scatter application of the visibility sizing method are also discussed.