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A detailed procedure for measuring turbulent velocity fluctuations using constant-voltage anemometry

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Abstract

A detailed procedure to use a constant-voltage anemometer (CVA) for the accurate measurement of turbulent flows is proposed. The procedure is based on the usual small-perturbation analysis of hot-wire signals. It consists in three steps: (1) the calibration of internal elements, required to estimate the two main electrical parameters of the CVA circuitry that are needed in the data analysis, (2) a flow calibration to relate the CVA output voltage and the hot-wire time constant to the flow velocity, and (3) a data-processing algorithm to recover the fluctuating flow quantities from the output voltage. The procedure is tested in two classical turbulent flows: a zero-pressure-gradient boundary layer and a round jet. In both cases, the CVA results are shown to be essentially indistinguishable from the results obtained with a research-grade constant-temperature anemometer.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Arun and Siva Mangalam from Tao Systems Inc. for providing a CVA unit and for their technical support. Part of this project was financed by the Samuel-De Champlain program established between the ministère des Relations internationales du Québec and the ministère des Affaires étrangères et européennes de la République française, 63rd session of the Commission permanente de coopération franco-québécoise.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire TFT, École de Technologie Supérieure, 1100 Notre-Dame Ouest, Montréal, QC, H3C 1K3, Canada

    Abdelouahab Mohammed-Taifour & Julien Weiss

  2. LADYF, Polytechnique Montréal, C.P. 6079, Succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal, QC, H3C 3A7, Canada

    Atabak Sadeghi & Jérôme Vétel

  3. LMFA, UMR CNRS 5509, École Centrale de Lyon, C.P. 6079, 36 Avenue Guy de Collongue, 69134, Ecully Cedex, France

    Emmanuel Jondeau & Geneviève Comte-Bellot

Authors
  1. Abdelouahab Mohammed-Taifour
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  2. Julien Weiss
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  3. Atabak Sadeghi
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  4. Jérôme Vétel
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  5. Emmanuel Jondeau
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  6. Geneviève Comte-Bellot
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Correspondence to Julien Weiss.

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Mohammed-Taifour, A., Weiss, J., Sadeghi, A. et al. A detailed procedure for measuring turbulent velocity fluctuations using constant-voltage anemometry. Exp Fluids 56, 174 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-015-2045-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-015-2045-0

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