The Use of a Hot-Wire Anemometer in Turbulent Flow

Abstract

The hot-wire anemometer is one of the few instruments which can be used to make velocity measurements in turbulent and unsteady flows. However, the probe supporting the wire inevitably interferes with the local flow and it has been found that the effect of this interference on the reading of the anemometer varies considerably as the orientation of the probe to the flow direction is changed (the wire itself being maintained in the same direction). This leads to errors in any measurements taken where the instantaneous local flow direction differs significantly at any time from the direction for which the anemometer was calibrated. Such errors are quite separate from, and in addition to, errors due to finite wire length, incidence of the wire to the local stream direction, etc.