High level GPU-accelerated 2D PIV framework in Python

The Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) method is widely used for optical measurment of flow velocity fields. This paper demonstrates the possibilities of using high-level libraries for GPU-accelerated PIV data analysis in Python. The Torch PIV library for the analysis of 2D PIV experiments based on the deep learning framework PyTorch with CUDA support was developed. The library implements a multi pass cross-correlation FFT PIV algorithm with an interrogation window shift. The chosen implementation does not require compilation from the user, has a compact codebase, is able to run both on the CPU and the GPU depending on the user choice, and also it is as flexible as the Python module. In this work, the performance of the CPU version of the developed method was compared with existing open source implementations. It is shown that the main functions of the developed module can be executed on the GPU at the speed of CUDA implementations. The developed library is tested on synthetic images and experimental data.