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Hot Wire Anemometry: Quantitative

This document provides an overview of hot wire anemometry (HWA), a technique used to measure turbulent velocity fluctuations. HWA remains popular due to its ability to measure small, fast velocity fluctuations. The document discusses recent developments in using HWA to evaluate all components of the velocity derivative tensor in turbulent air flows. It also motivates obtaining full information about velocity and its derivatives, as partial information may be inadequate and invariant quantities derived from the full tensor can provide important insights into turbulence properties and processes.

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39 views2 pages

Hot Wire Anemometry: Quantitative

This document provides an overview of hot wire anemometry (HWA), a technique used to measure turbulent velocity fluctuations. HWA remains popular due to its ability to measure small, fast velocity fluctuations. The document discusses recent developments in using HWA to evaluate all components of the velocity derivative tensor in turbulent air flows. It also motivates obtaining full information about velocity and its derivatives, as partial information may be inadequate and invariant quantities derived from the full tensor can provide important insights into turbulence properties and processes.

Uploaded by

st.shenpp
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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HOT WIRE ANEMOMETRY

(An Overview in TurbulenceResearch- Presentand Future)

A. TSINOBER
Departmentof Fluid Mechanicsand Heat Transfer,Faculty of Engineering,
Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel

A short accounton the methodis given and 1978). This consistsof at least many
with the emphasison recentdevelopments hundredsof papers on specific subjects,
in attemptsto evaluateall componentsof manyreview papersand chaptersin books,
the velocity derivativestensorin turbulent and several books. Only a small part of
air flows (only). The bibliography is com- theseare given in the sectionof references
piled in such a way as to provide a guide with the emphasison publicationsof gen-
for thosewishing to enterthis field and en- eral nature, reviews, books and papersof
abling to find an answerpractically to any special interest from the point of this ar-
question. ticle. However, it is a must to specially
mention the work of Dryden & Kuethe
INTRODUCTION 1929, which startedthe era of quantitative
In spite of considerableprogress in a measurements of turbulent velocity fluctu-
variety of modern techniques,such as 3- ations.
D particle tracking and holographicmeth- A typical modern HWA arrangement
ods, hot-wire anemometry(HWA) remains consists of a probe/sensor (or several
the only techniquecapableof measuring probes), calibration, data acquisition and
the smallestand the fastestphysically rel- processingsystems. The main part of
evant velocity fluctuations in turbulent a HWA probe consists of one or several
flows. This is one of the main (but not the miniaturemetallic elements(wires, films),
only) reasonswhy HWA remainsso popu- whose electrical resistanceis a function of
lar amongresearchersand engineersup to temperature. Among several methods of
now. obtainingvelocity from the sensoroutput,
The term HWA refers to a variety of the constanttemperaturemethod proved
techniques,all of which are basedon the to be the most reliable and effective. Its
use of some kind of thermal transducer main feature is constant resistancecom-
for the purposeof measuringsome prop- pensatingelectroniccircuitry with a feed-
erty(ies) of fluid flow. Mostly, the prop- back loop, which keepsthe temperatureof
erty being measuredis one or two veloc- the sensorconstant under changing heat
ity components.Other properties,such as transfer conditions due to fluctuating ve-
temperatureand compositioncan be mea- locity. The compensatingvoltage or cur-
sured, since the transducersare sensitive rent outputsare 'turned' into velocity via
to heattransferbetweenthe sensorand the somecalibration procedure,which is sup-
environment. posed to produce a one to one relation
HWA techniqueis about 100 years old betweenthe output voltagesand velocity
(for an historical introduction see Comte- components.In casewhen in the flow ex-
Bellot 1976). During this period a vast lit- ist variations of propertiesother than ve-
eratureon the subject has emerged(Frey- locities, the calibration procedurehas to
muth 1978 has compiled an outstanding be capableto separatethe velocity signal
bibliography for the period between1817 from other influences, the most problem-

Turbrdence: A Tenlalive Diclionary


Edited by P. Tabeling and O. Cardoso.Plenwn Press.New York. 1995 31
atic of which are the variations of temper- mental indications of such differences were
ature. A really good calibration of a HWA obtained by Freytag 1978.
probe (even with a single wire) is one of
the most difficult aspects of HWA, since This points to the necessity of simulta-
-citing Perry 1982- the central difficulty neously measuring all the velocity deriva-
with a hot-wire anemometer is that there tives allowing to obtain the true dissipa-
is no certain way of subjecting the sen- tion and not its surrogate. An important
sor of the instrument to accurately known point is that the full dissipation is a geo-
velocity fluctuations over the desired fre- metrical invariant quantity, which is inde-
quency range of operation. It is generally pendent of the system of reference. Such
accepted that due to very high frequency quantities are the most appropriate for de-
response the so-called static calibration - scribing physical processes. There exists
when one obtains the necessary relations many other invariant quantities of extreme
at 'zero frequency', i.e. in a steady and importance in turbulence research, which
turbulence free homogeneous flow- is pre- can be obtained easily from the velocity
cise enough in most cases (however, see e.g. vector and the tensor of velocity deriva-
Perry 1982, Lebedeva & Dragan 1991). tives, e.g. ens trophy (squared vorticity),
There exists a great number of other dif- enstrophy generation, helicity, etc. For ex-
ficulties in using accurately the HWA tech- ample, using such information about en-
nique. These have been carefully discussed strophy generation it was possible to con-
in Perry 1982, Antonia 1993 and references firm by a direct experimental observation
therein. Some of the most important diffi- the prevalence of the vortex stretching pro-
culties relevant for this communication will cess over the vortex compressing in turbu-
be mentioned in the sequel. lent flows. Another example is that having
the information on the whole tensor of ve-
SCOPE AND MOTIVATION locity derivatives one can evaluate various
(statistical) properties of such an invari-
In the following we are concerned with ant quantity as !J. == (ou;joXj)(OUj/OXi)
the possibilities of using HWA technique and thereby obtain information about the
for measurement -or at least evaluation- Laplacian of pressure (since for incom-
of the whole tensor of the velocity deriva- pressible fluids V 2 p/ p == D.) and compa~
tives along with the three components of its behavior with the results of direct nu-
the velocity vector. There are several rea- merical simulations in the case of a Gaus-
sons for obtaining simultaneously all the sian velocity field, which can be obtained
velocity components and all the nine ve- analytically. Properties of D. are of partie:
locity derivatives comprising the tensor of ular interest also for another two reasons:
velocity derivatives. first -2!J. == w 2 - f/ I' characterizes the
Partial information about velocity vec- differences between enstrophy and dissipa-
tor and the tensor of velocity derivatives tion, and second, !J. represents those terms
may be inadequate in several respects (Tsi- in the expression for the instantaneous dis-
nober, Kit & Dracos 1991, 1992, Antonia sipation which make the largest contribu-
1993). For example, it is a common as- tion when the purely positive terms are
sumption in turbulence research that tur- small, since 2f/1' == L,i,;(ou;joXj)2 + !J.
bulent dissipation is well represented by (Shtilman et al. 1993b). Finally, informa-
a si:tlgle squared velocity derivative. Ex- tion about all the velocity components and
cept of their mean values other properties their derivatives allows to obtain various
of these two quantities are different even invariant geometrical relations of extreme
in homogeneous and quasi-isotropic flows. dynamical significance such as alignments
This problem has been formulated by Gib- between various quantities (velocity - vor-
son and Masiello 1972 (see also Sreeni- ticity, vorticity - eigenvectors of the rate of
vasan et al. 1977), while the first experi- strain tensor, vorticity - vortex stretching

32

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