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Geotechnical designs are commonly based on several assumptions. Regardless of limitations caused by the inherent variability of soil and its unknown behavior, field measurements by the site instrumentation provide opportunities to have a safe and efficient design. Therefore, instrumentation has an important role in geotechnical research and professional studies. With the development of urban construction, excavations adjacent to buildings have increased dramatically. With large changes in stress distribution due to excavation, displacements may occur in the adjoining buildings and the soilmass. In urban excavations, the control of displacements created in soil and adjacent buildingshave always been an important issue due to the risk of damages.  An optimum design and safe operation of the supporting system require a full understanding of the load distribution and displacement patterns in it. A simple traditional method in protecting the excavations is the use of inclined struts.This method,commonlyusedinIran,is the use of inclined strutsto support the adjacentbuildings. This method is not merely used in large excavations, but it is very popular for small to medium size excavations because of long-term traditional uses in Iran. Althoughthe mentioned method has practical applications but it is not fully investigated. It is necessary to investigate the presented method to determine itsadvantages and disadvantages as well as the limitations and the appropriate scope of its application.  Some theoretical and numerical studies have been conducted in this regard and in fact the primary understanding of the performance mechanism of inclined struts and the loads acting on them are based on numerical studies. Thispaper reports the results of aninstrumentation undertakenon inclined struts during excavation and presentsvaluable informationaboutthe performance of such struts. In addition, a two dimensional numerical modelingwas performedand calibrated in order toverifythe mechanism ofstruts performance observed in thefield monitoring. The results proposethe mechanismof the inclined struts during excavation beside existing buildings as follows: (a)Partofthe load of the adjacent building ispassed to the bottom of the excavation through theinclined strutand consequentlyless pressure is exertedonthesoilbeneath the foundation. Therefore the amount of settlement beneath the foundation decreases. This mechanism suggests that inclined struts act as underpinning. (b) The inclined strutreduces the horizontal displacements of the excavation wall and the neighboring buildings due to the lateral constraintsit creates. As described below, the reduction of horizontal displacement has a significant impact on reduction of damage in neighboring buildings. Moreover, the paper in troduces a set of simpleinstrumentations which are designed in the course of the presented study andcan beusedin common engineering practice for small to medium size excavations. Monitoring is commonly neglected in small or medium projects but the use of proposed set of monitoring tools could play an important roleto increase safety and also in the investigation of excavations in urban areas

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The aim of this paper is to analyze the sensor errors in measurement while drilling (MWD) instrument used in directional drilling operations. The MWD consist of three orthogonal accelerometers, three orthogonal magnetometers and one temperature sensor. The system formulation is achieved through the system analysis and functional consideration. The obtained formulation is validated and verified by comparing the results obtained from measurements and simulations. The accelerometers calibration, to estimate bias factors, scale factors and non-orthogonal factors of sensors, is done using optimal non-linear Newton Raphson algorithm by considering the high temperature calibration coefficients. The accuracy of the experimental results, obtained from several measurement while drilling systems in Iranian national oil drilling company shows the effectiveness of the approach.
 
 

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A crossbreeding experiment involving four Iranian fat-tailed sheep breeds, namely Kurdi (K), Chaal (C), Afshari (A) and Sanjabi (S) was carried out to determine the ram breed effects on productivity of Kurdi fat-tailed ewes (K) under extensive production system. A total of 475 Kurdi ewes were mated to 24 rams from four breeds producing 454 lambs including pure Kurdi, KK, (116 lambs), Afshari × Kurdi, AK, (113 lambs), Chaal × Kurdi, CK, (115 lambs) and Sanjabi × Kurdi crossbreds, SK, (110 lambs). Ram breed had a significant influence on early growth traits of the lambs (P < 0.01). The lambs sired by C rams were significantly heavier at birth and weaning than the other lambs (P < 0.05). Weight at 180 days of age (W180) in crossbred lambs was significantly higher than that of the purebred lambs (P < 0.05) while there was no significant difference among crossbred lambs for W180. Greasy fleece weight of lambs at first shearing (GFW) was significantly affected by ram breed (P < 0.05). Ram breed significantly influenced the fat-tail measurements of the lambs (P < 0.01). Number of lambs born and number of lambs weaned per ewe lambed or per ewe joined were not significantly influenced by ram breed effect, but the effect of ram breed on litter weight at birth and weaning per ewe lambed or per ewe joined was significant (P < 0.05). In general, ewes mated to Chaal ram had higher productivity than those mated to other ram genetic groups.

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Wind is one of the factors influencing the performance of the dry cooling tower. According to research, wind will decrease the efficiency of dry cooling tower about 20%. Therefore, many studies have been done to improve the performance of dry cooling towers. Although various numerical methods and wind tunnel studies have been conducted, but the data obtained has not been properly validated and therefore requires that the appropriate field research done. To study the effect of wind on the performance of dry cooling tower, it is appropriate to model airflow around the cooling tower and the entrance of the deltas. In this research, which is the field research, air flow pattern around the tower and the deltas of Montazar ghaem plant cooling tower has been evaluated. The survey results found that the flow around the cooling tower has no separation. The sectors are positioned in front and back of the wind have the most efficiency and the least efficient sectors that are tangential to the wind. There is a vortex flow pattern in the critical deltas.

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Raw cane sugar is the one of the most important products in sugar industry. Quality characteristics of raw sugar are the main influence factor in type and quality of refined sugars.  The purpose of this research was to find agrrement between the CIE color coordinates and certain quality parameters of various imported raw cane sugar samples. The spectral reflectance of such raw sugar samples were determined with the aid of a spectrophotoradiometer in the range 380 to 780 nm and were then converted to their corresponding CIE color coordinates. The correlation between such color coordinate values and certain quality parameters of samples such as; ash content, sucrose, invert sugar, color solution, pH, starch, dextran content, moisture and refractive index were determined. Results show good to very good correlations between some quality parameters such as starch content, ash content and color solution and various CIE color coordinates values such as L^* , a^*, b^*, C^*, h, X, Y, Z, x, y and Y.I.

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There are several direct and indirect methods to estimate in-situ stress. Generally in all methods rock breaking is required for in-situ stress determination in which broken rock response is due to displacement/strain or hydraulic pressure. Hydraulic fracture, Relief method, Jacking method, Strain Recovery method and borehole breakout method are known as direct methods. On other hand, the indirect methods estimation is based on changing of some physical or other properties of rock which represent from applying stress. Even though, these methods are also laboratory methods, however, indirect techniques are non destructive, low cost and simple for estimation of in-situ stress. This is the reason which has motivated rock mechanics researchers to use Acoustic Emission (AE) and Deformation Rate Analysis (DRA) methods. Results aaccuracy of the methods are affected by rock texture, cracks type and delay time. The delay time means that time between coring in field and test time for stress measuring. The capability of AE and DRA methods in stress estimation have been assessed in this research and the effect of delay time on estimated stress are worked out. AE and DRA tests were carried out on the samples for estimation of in-situ stress. Stress has a nature tensor with 9 components, in which six of them are independent components and the rest (3 components) are dependent components. Each component of tensor need to be determined with a total of six tensors which required six tests in six different orientations. Six series of samples with different delay times (4 series with 20 days as delay time and 2 series with 5 years as delay time) were obtained from abutments of Seyamreh dam (South-West of Iran). AE and DRA tests were carried out. The values obtain from these AE and DRA tests were compared with result of Hydraulic Fracturing (HF) method which carried out at the same locations. The comparison shows a good conformity between the result of AE and DRA methods with those of HF method for horizontal stresses where as there are variations noticed for vertical stress values. This may be due to this fact that in the HF method assumes the vertical stress is equal to overburden weight which is not correct assumption. The other result of this assumption is that the others two principal stresses are horizontal. It is obvious if one of principal stresses would be vertical the two other have to be horizontal. Furthermore, this investigation infers that delay time is very important parameter on the results obtained by AE & DRA methods. Thus better accuracy can be computed when the delay time is minimized.

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The inertia of wave measurement buoys impresses transfer functions on the wave measurement data (i.e. heave, wave slopes with respect to the horizontal axes). This effect causes difference or error between the measured and actual wave data. Calculation or estimation of the buoy transfer functions and affecting the inverse of them, makes it is possible to achieve more accurate wave data. In this paper, an algorithm for estimation of the buoy transfer functions using in-situ wave data is introduced and the simulation results are presented. The effect of the buoy transfer functions on the spectral parameters is also investigated. This algorithm uses the intrinsic properties of the sea waves.

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Control of seismic shake table in order to track the predefined earthquake profile is a key concern in design of seismic shake tables. This paper proposes a vision-based real time displacement measurement system using image processing techniques to control a laboratory-scale seismic shake table. The shake table is controlled via a fuzzy-supervisory controller, an inner PID loop and a Fuzzy outer one, whose feedback is provided by the vision-based measurement system. To minimize tracking errors, the fuzzy controller uses displacement and acceleration responses as its feedbacks. For this purpose, a camera and an image processing application are utilized to measure the motions directly in real time. Results are sent to a host PC through a network as the controller feedback. Proposed system performance is compared with an alternative system which utilizes a linear encoder as displacement sensor and controller feedback. Test results prove effectiveness of the proposed fuzzy system in cutting back the tracking errors. In addition, the vision-based system uses a very low cost camera to measure the displacement directly. It has appropriate accuracy, works in real time, and doesn't need any contact with the table, comparing to the encoder version.

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One of the dysarthria features is inaccurate articulation of consonants and vowels, which is the main cause of speech unintelligibility. However, it is not clear what acoustic measures are more related to speech intelligibility in dysarthria. On the other hand, the number of vowels, their articulation and acoustic characteristics are various in different languages. As far as we know, no study investigated vowels articulation in developmental dysarthria in Persian, so there is not enough information about movement details which make their inaccuracies articulation. Hence, the present study aimed to investigate some acoustic measures including vowel formants, vowel space area (VSA), formant centralization ratio (FCR) and vowel articulation index (VAI) and aim to study their correlation with speech intelligibility in Persian speaking children with dysarthria due to spastic cerebral palsy. In this cross ـ sectional study, 11 monolingual children with dysarthria aged 3 ـ 9 years and their typically developing matched peers were selected through convenience sampling. For each of the six Persian vowels, two monosyllable words were acoustically analyzed using PRAAT software. To determine intelligibility of words and vowels, the percentage of correct detected ones was calculated. Results showed a significant difference between the two groups in the third formant of the vowels /a/ and /u/ and the second formant of the vowel /o/. The vowel space area and intelligibility were significantly reduced in dysarthria. VAS was more correlated with intelligibility and is a good acoustic measurement to assess speech intelligibility in dysarthria. However all three studied acoustic indices had moderate significant correlation with intelligibility.

1. Introduction
Abnormalities in power, speed, range, muscle tone, stability, and accuracy of movements necessary for respiration, phonation, production, articulation, or prosodic aspects of speech lead to dysarthria (Duffy, 2019). Depending on the location of the damage in the nervous system, there are different types of dysarthria and each creates different speech characteristics (Duffy, 2019). Cerebral palsy is one of the main causes of dysarthria in children. One of the main and distinctive features of dysarthria is imprecise production, which is the main factor for low speech intelligibility (De Bodt et al., 2002). However, there is limited information on the motor features that cause this inaccuracy in children’s production, and awareness of these motor events is a prerequisite for providing appropriate therapeutic approaches (Allison et al., 2017). If we consider syllables as speech motor units (Yunusova et al., 2008) and vowels as the core components of syllables, vowel distortion can affect the structure of syllables and consequently speech. Describing the vowels of a language has more auditory aspects than articulatory ones. However, gradually linguistics realized that if the vowels of a language are displayed based on F1 and F2 features, the result will be a two-dimensional space that they named vowel space. Since speech intelligibility is the primary goal of clinical interventions, and since vowels are a good predictor of speech intelligibility in dysarthria, it is necessary to accurately determine the correctness and accuracy of vowels with the help of appropriate diagnostic or perceptual tools to assess the effects of direct and indirect therapies on the proper production of vowels and the improvement of speech intelligibility. This diagnosis guides therapists in selecting appropriate treatment methods or continuing therapy.
Research Question(s)
Is the formant of each of the 6 vowels in Persian-speaking children with spastic dysarthria different from that of typically developing children? Are speech intelligibility, acoustic parameters of vowel space, vowel production indices, and formant centralization ratio different in children with dysarthria based on age? Is there a correlation between some acoustic parameters of vowels and speech intelligibility?


2. Literature Review
In 2019, a study was conducted in China on the Mandarin language with the aim of determining acoustic parameters for speech evaluation in children with dysarthria due to cerebral palsy. Thirty children aged 5 to 15 with cerebral palsy and 13 typically developing children participated in the study. Formants F1 and F2 were calculated for vowels /a, i, u/. The VSA, VAI, and FCR indices were also calculated and analyzed. In children with cerebral palsy, there were significant differences in F1 and F2 for the vowel /a/ and F2 for the vowel /i/, while there were no significant differences in F1 and F2 for the vowel /u/ and F1 for the vowel /i/. There were significant differences between the two groups in the FCR, VAI, and VSA indices (Mou et al., 2019). In another study in 2017 aimed at improving the understanding of speech characteristics related to dysarthria in English-speaking children with cerebral palsy in the United States, formants were analyzed at the word and sentence levels. The speech of 10 children with dysarthria due to cerebral palsy was compared to 10 typically developing children. The results showed that children with dysarthria had a smaller vowel space compared to typically developing children at both the word and sentence levels (Allison et al., 2017). The same researchers conducted another study in 2018 with the aim of determining acoustic characteristics of connected speech in children with dysarthria due to cerebral palsy and typically developing children. Twenty children with dysarthria were matched with typically developing children in terms of age and gender. The results showed that children with dysarthria differ from typically developing children in terms of speech-segmental and suprasegmental features (Allison & Hustad, 2018). In 2016, a study titled “Vowel Intelligibility in Children with or without Dysarthria” was conducted. Researchers in this exploratory study examined the vowel intelligibility of American English vowels in American children. Generally, children with dysarthria had lower vowel intelligibility compared to typically developing children, but there was no statistically significant difference in intelligibility among different vowels. These studies highlight the significance of focusing on the vowel system during therapy to enhance intelligibility (Levy et al., 2016).

3. Methodology
In the present cross-sectional study, 11 children with spastic dysarthria due to cerebral palsy were selected from rehabilitation clinics in Semnan city, and 11 typically developing age- and gender-matched children from preschools and primary schools in the same city. The inclusion criteria for children with cerebral palsy in the study were mild to moderate dysarthria due to spastic cerebral palsy, aged 3 to 9 years, and the ability to produce single words. Exclusion criteria were the presence of sensory or motor problems, bilingualism, dysphagia, and difficulties in producing consonants present in test words. Initially, 12 monosyllabic words with a CVC structure including 2 words for each of the 6 vowels in the Persian language were selected by a linguist and a speech-language pathologist, which were simple to produce in terms of consonants and did not affect the central vowel. Each word was uttered twice, so 4 words were spoken for each vowel, with 3 of them selected for formant analysis using PRAAT software. Subsequently, the spoken words by each child were presented to adults unfamiliar with the child, who were free of hearing or language issues, to write down the words after hearing them. The researchers determined the number of correct words and the vowels identified by adults to establish the percentage of vowel and speech intelligibility for each child. Finally, the two groups of children were compared in terms of vowel space and speech intelligibility.

4. Results
In this study, each group of children with normal speech and dysarthria included 4 girls and 7 boys with a minimum age of 3.5 and a maximum age of 9 years. The mean age in children with dysarthria was 1.9 ± 5.6 years and in the group with normal speech was 1.8 ± 5.7 years, with no significant difference between them (p > 0.05). Since results in speech production change with age due to vocal tract lengthening and children’s motor skill development, the children in this study were categorized into 2 subgroups of 3.6 to 6 years and 6 to 9 years. Comparison of vowels in children with dysarthria and their age-matched typically developing peers using the Mann-Whitney test showed a significant difference between the two groups only in 6 to 9-year-old children in the first formant of /i/ and /æ/ vowels, the second formant of /æ/ vowel, and also the third formant of /e/ and /a/ vowels. Speech intelligibility at the single-word and vowel level, acoustic parameters of vowel space, vowel production indices, and formant centralization ratio were compared between the two groups of children with dysarthria at different ages using the Mann-Whitney test, which showed a significant difference in word and vowel intelligibility between the two groups. All acoustic indices also showed a significant difference between the two groups. Vowel space, calculated based on the /a/, /i/, and /u/ side vowels in this study, was smaller in the group of children with dysarthria compared to the normal group. In both age groups, the dispersion of vowel production in the dysarthric group was higher compared to the normal children. The results of the Spearman correlation coefficient test showed a significant moderate relationship between all indices of vowels and speech intelligibility. This relationship was direct for the Vowel Space Area (VSA) and Vowel Articulatory Index (VAI) and inverse for the Formant Centralization Ratio (FCR).
 

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Air entrainment in liquids via a fluid jet, is a complex phenomenon that has important applications in industry and the environment. The impact of a vertical laminar water jet translating over the quiescent pool of water at constant velocity was studied empirically, and the penetration depth as well as distribution of the bubbles formed by this jet was measured for both fresh and sea water with two different optical methods. This experiment was conducted at different flow rates (corresponding to different vertical velocities). In each case, the jet was moved at different horizontal velocities relative to the pool surface. As the jet started its horizontal translation, air began entering the pool from the bottom of the point of impact. Bubbles penetration depth was measured through a high-speed imaging technique, and pulse shadowgraphy was used for measuring the bubbles distribution. Increasing the vertical velocity of the jet while simultaneously decreasing the horizontal velocity of the same led to increased bubble penetration depths, and similar results were obtained for fresh water and sea water. This result was obtained in spite of the fact that the number and size of the bubbles formed in sea water were dramatically different from those formed in fresh water. Moreover, the significant role of buoyant forces in the distribution of the bubbles was obvious. The penetration depth and distribution of the bubbles were measured and reported for various jets with different diameters at different vertical and horizontal velocities.

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Nowadays, sewage system is either being installed or has been installed in both developing and developed countries. CCTV cameras and the estimation of pipe age are main sources of inspecting sewer pipeline conditions, although not providing decisive information. Managing sewage installations requires reliable quantitative and geometrical data on the conditions of pipes both in-service and after installation. Measuring the rate of sewage blockage has always been challenging. Various attempts have been done to develop and apply different techniques for the determination of pipe blockage since the 1990s, but most of them were not practical or comprehensive. Pipe profiling could be a novel method in this regard. The method proposed in this paper would be able to measure both the cross-section and profile of sewer pipes. This includes two infrared sensors and a servomotor attached to a measurement device mechanism. The set enters a sewer pipe and measures the coordinates of pipe cross-section points. Then, the collected raw data are transferred outside in order to be processed and later saved in a text file format. The saved data will be depicted as pipe cross-section 2D profile using the suggested and developed API package at SOLIDWORKS environment, which in turn will result in the availability of a 3D model of under-inspection pipes. It should be added that different parameters of every desired pipe cross-section will be measurable as well.

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The use of System Dynamics Modeling in Supply Chain Management has only recently re-emerged after a lengthy slack period .the propose of this thesis is to use knowledge and techniques in implementation based on recent research .At first we have given an overview of supply chain management and system dynamics and then presented a taxonomy of research and development in System Dynamics Modeling in supply chain management. In this research we have focused on a supply chain as a case study Which produce and distribute healthy products and its main company is darugar. we used System Dynamics techniques to know effective variables in our supply chain and understand how to improve its performance .we started simulation model design by explaining dynamic hypothesis and continued by creating casual loops, stock & flow diagrams and mathematical formulation .our model was tested by famous dynamics and statistical techniques and then we started to investigate causes of supply chain’s behavior by sensitivity analyses. when we understood the main factors and their interactions completely we started to suggest three policies due to supply chain indexes to improve its performance .the policies are missed sale reduction ,inventory reduction and correct information receive which all causes improvement in introduced indexes in our research .what we achieved of this research was our ability of predicting results before any changes in parameters ,relationships or structure of supply chain and it is so important due to its high degree of complicity.

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Understanding people’s ecological behaviors and the impacts of human activities on natural environment is one of the most important concepts in ecological psychology research. The purpose of this study was to investigate causal relationship between factors and maize growers’ ecological behavior concerning the application of external inputs such as water, fertilizers, chemical pesticides, and machineries based on the Comprehensive Action Determination model applied to the agricultural sector in Iran, for the first time. The ecological behavior in agriculture means cultivation with proper methods for conservation of soil, water, and other resources. Population of this study was all maize growers in Shiraz County (491 farmers). Through stratified random sampling method, 220 maize growers were selected. Results indicate that situational influences, normative processes, intentional processes, and habitual processes are effective factors on maize growers' ecological behavior. Based on the results, some recommendations are presented.

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The intense increasing of pollutions from cars in the enclosed residential parking lots is an important challenge. Forecast and estimate of generated pollution from cars is applicable for proper design of residential car parks. In this article, the pollution concentration in a residential parking lot is measured experimentally and the results are used for validation of numerical solution. In the second part, the pollutions are simulated in several parking lots and the equation of pollution incensement with time is proposed and offered in the form of analytical equation. By using this equation, the allowable time of man’s presence in these parking lots is offered.

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Dielectrophoresis is a phenomenon with wide application in the cell sorting system, in which, the dielectrophoresis force acts on a dielectric particle located in the non-uniform electric filed is used. In this study, governing equations on this phenomenon is presented and a new method for measuring dielectrophoresis force is developed. This method is based on measuring drag force on particle and solving the equilibrium equations. For this purpose drag force is measured in two directions, parallel and perpendicular to electrodes. To evaluate the method, an actuator has been developed which has paralleled electrodes with 50 μm widths and 50 μm intervals and a PDMS channel with height of 80 μm is mounted on them. In experimental result, the exerted dielectrophoretic force on U-87 tumor cell and white blood cell were measured. Since electrical properties of white blood cells are known, the accuracy of presented method was evaluated by using numerical simulation of their dielectrophoretic force and comparing with experimental results. Experimental results prove that the error of force measurement in traditional models, may be even more than 3 time of the actual dielectrophoresis force, while in presented method the source of this error is eliminated

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One of the major issues in the industry is inhomogeneity depth profiling in the metallic structures before reaching them to the border of demolition. Fuzzy logic based methodologies, due to their ability to describe the complex issues with empirical nature such as non-destructive testing, are used for this purpose and usually provide acceptable results. But empirical rules and also extracted data from non-destructive testing methods mainly have high degree of uncertainty and therefore Classical fuzzy methods, which are based on exact membership grades and Type-I membership functions, are incapable to deal with them. Therefore, they cannot deal with noisy environments and also cannot represent a good performance for accurate depth estimation of unknown cracks. In this paper, to allocate uncertainty to rules and membership functions, the type-II fuzzy logic system is used to solve the inverse problem of crack profile depth estimation. Also Alternating Current Field Measurement (ACFM) signals are used to sizing the depth of crack profile. Then, experimental results of the proposed method are compared to the other state of the arts in the presence of different level of noise and different type of cracks. The results show the superiority of the proposed method to the other methods.

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Particle image velocimetry (PIV) is an optical flow measurement technique, which is capable of measuring instantaneous flow velocity. In this method, visualized flow patterns by small tracer particles, which follow the fluid flow and reflect an incident light, is recorded by a camera successively, and an analysis of particle movements in the recorded images results in the velocity of flow field. Correlation analysis is commonly used for the analysis of particle shift images, in which the images are divided into smaller windows called interrogation windows. The common displacement vector of particles in each interrogation window is determined by correlation analysis, which in turn results in the displacement vectors for the entire image. The accuracy of this method is dependent on the estimation of the location of the maximum value of correlation with subpixel accuracy. The objective of this research is the evaluation of function fit methods to estimate of the correlation peak location with subpixel accuracy. For this purpose, parabolic curve and second order surface fitting are investigated theoretically and experimentally. To achieve definite displacements, deformation of a solid part under uniform loading is investigated instead of fluid flow and the displacement of point patterns painted on the solid surface are analyzed. The results show that both function fit methods are capable of resolving subpixel movements with the accuracy of 0.035 pixel or one micrometer in this research.

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