A Tomographic Reconstruction Method for Three-Dimensional Liquid Crystal Thermography

Liquid crystal thermography generates two-dimensional temperature information in a fluid layer. Three-dimensional temperature field can be reconstructed using the two-dimensional temperature fields obtained at various locations with the help of synchronized transverse movements of the light sheet and camera (Lutjen et al., 1999). However, it is not feasible to generate a large number of liquid crystal thermographs that are needed for the reconstruction of a high resolution three-dimensional temperature field. A tomographic reconstruction method is suggested here that can be appropriately used to produce a high resolution three-dimensional reconstruction from a limited number of two-dimensional images of the full temperature field. The two-dimensional temperature fields generated from the experiments can be used to obtain an integrated information of the three-dimensional field from various directions known as projections of the actual three-dimensional field and can be used to reconstruct a high resolution volumetric temperature field.