Abstract A new evaluation scheme for double exposure three-dimensional particle-tracking velocimetry is proposed. Its main feature, a robust multi-pass matching algorithm, is presented and validated by investigating its performance when applied to a synthetic data set. To evaluate real measurement data, the approach is supplemented by an iterative triangulation scheme, in which the resulting particle positions are validated through the matching algorithm. The comparison with tomographic particle-image velocimetry data shows good agreement. The proposed algorithm allows this approach to be applied to volumetric measurements with seeding densities exceeding standard particle-tracking applications. Therefore, it can serve as a drop-in replacement for tomographic particle-image velocimetry at significantly reduced computational cost. Graphic abstract