PIV can also be used to measure the velocity field of the free surface and basal boundary in a granular flows such as those in shaken containers, tumblers and avalanches.
This analysis is particularly well-suited for nontransparent media such as sand, gravel, quartz, or other granular materials that are common in geophysics. This PIV approach is called "granular PIV". The set-up for granular PIV differs from the usual PIV setup in that the optical surface structure which is produced by illumination of the surface of the granular flow is already sufficient to detect the motion. This means one does not need to add tracer particles in the bulk material.