Abstract
The principles and practice of pulsed-wire anemometry are reviewed. Flow velocity is deduced from the time taken for the thermal wake of a thin wire, heated by a short pulse of current, to reach a sensor wire operating as a resistance thermometer. The advantage over the hot-wire anemometer is that reversed flows can be measured by adding a second sensor wire on the “upstream” side of the pulsed wire: the main advantages over the laser Doppler anemometer are cheapness and simplicity of use. The pulsed-wire anemometer can now be regarded as a cost-effective instrument for measurements in turbulent separated flows.
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Handford, P.M., Bradshaw, P. The pulsed-wire anemometer. Experiments in Fluids 7, 125–132 (1989). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00207305
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00207305