Physical Review Journal Club: Ray-tracing Image Simulations of Transparent Objects with Complex Shape and Inhomogeneous Refractive Index
Thursday, May 21, 2026
9 a.m. ET, 2 p.m. GMT, 3 p.m. CET
Video Link
The Physical Review Journal Club is back, this time for a discussion with author Claudiu Stan (Rutgers University), presenting the recently published Physical Review Fluids paper “Ray-tracing Image Simulations of Transparent Objects with Complex Shape and Inhomogeneous Refractive Index.”
After the presentation, the authors will answer questions from the audience in a live Q&A session, moderated by PRFluids Editorial Board Member Christian J. Kähler (Universität der Bundeswehr München). Registration is free and a video recording will be provided to all registrants.
Summary:
In this PRFluids NEAT (New Experiments, Algorithms, and Theory) paper, the authors develop a ray-tracing-based method to simulate images of transparent objects. Typically, optical images of transparent objects like drops depend in a nontrivial way on the object’s complex shape and its inhomogeneous refractive index, which imposes limitations on accurate simulations.
By means of ray tracing with calibrated illumination, high physical fidelity images are achieved, reproducing features that previous studies could not capture, such as bright-field microscopy images of drops with complex shapes and visualizations of pressure waves inside them. The simulations can be optimized to extract three-dimensional properties directly from experimental images and, due to their high sensitivity to drop properties, can also be used to visualize, validate, and refine fluid dynamics models, with direct applications to other fields like microfluidics or biology.
Read ahead:
Ray-tracing Image Simulations of Transparent Objects with Complex Shape and Inhomogeneous Refractive Index
Armin Kalita, Bryan Oller, Thomas Paula, Alexander Bußmann, Sebastian Marte, Gabriel Blaj, Raymond G. Sierra, Sandra Mous, Kirk A. Larsen, et al.
Phys. Rev. Fluids 11, 044908
