PIVNO: Particle Image Velocimetry Neural Operator

Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) aims to infer underlying velocity fields from time-separated particle images, forming a PDE-constrained inverse problem governed by advection dynamics. Traditional cross-correlation methods and deep learning-based feature matching approaches often struggle with ambiguity, limited resolution, and generalization to real-world conditions. To address these challenges, we propose a PIV Neural Operator (PIVNO) framework that directly approximates the inverse mapping from paired particle images to flow fields within a function space. Leveraging a position informed Galerkin-style attention operator, PIVNO captures global flow structures while supporting resolution-adaptive inference across arbitrary subdomains. Moreover, to enhance real-world adaptability, we introduce a self-supervised fine-tuning scheme based on physical divergence constraints, enabling the model to generalize from synthetic to real experiments without requiring labeled data. Extensive evaluations demonstrate the accuracy, flexibility, and robustness of our approach across both simulated and experimental PIV datasets. Our code is at https://github.com/ZXS-Labs/PIVNO.