I am trying to list the advantages and demerits of two different measurement techniques under which cost would be something I am interested in among others. Thank you.
Ravi,
The cost is somewhat of a function of the energy/pulse.
If your purchase is associated with the University, usually you are eligible for a discount. For my Quantel 200 mJ/pulse Nd:YAG bought about 5 years ago now, the cost was somewhere around $42,000. From what I understand the prices haven't changed that much over the past few years.
Depending on your pulse energy and repetition rate and packaging (i.e. size, etc.), the price could have a wide range. For a low end product of 50 mJ/pulse and 10 Hz, it would cost around $30K. For high-end product such as Photronics 60 mJ/pulse and 2K Hz repetition rate, or Spectra Physics 400 mJ/pulse laser, the price could reach to $100K or above.
You can also use continuous laser and shorten exposure time on your camera. This is a much cheaper solution suitable for a number of tasks.
The systems I mentioned are double pulsed and designed specifically for PIV applications. There are two typical double pulsing schemes, i.e., two laser heads and double Q-switching. But nowadays, PIV people usually use frame straddling to achieve the same effect of double pulsing, which can significantly reduce the cost of doing PIV.
prices for double pulse PIV lasers from Microvec start at less than 20,000 USD (2 x 60 mJ, 25 Hz)
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