Validation of magnetic resonance velocimetry for mean velocity measurements of turbulent flows in a circular pipe

Magnetic resonance velocimetry (MRV) is a versatile flow visualization technique that has been utilized for medical applications. Recently, MRV has been used to visualize engineering flows, but most engineers are still unfamiliar with the technique. In this paper, we introduce the basic principles and experimental configurations of MRV in detail and evaluate the accuracy of MRV applied to measure the mean velocity fields of turbulent flows in a circular pipe. A Philips Achieva 3.0 T Tx MRI scanner is used to provide a magnetic field and acquire resonance signals for flow visualization. Fully developed turbulent flows with Reynolds numbers of 6800, 9900 and 19400 were measured, and the axial mean velocity vectors were obtained with a spatial resolution of 0.5 mm for the three directions. Results show that the mean velocity profiles are in good agreement with reference data sets when properly scaled in both the inner and outer layers.