Anemometer

Details Anemometer Anemometer

1996-06-07

1998-01-20

Chilcot, Richard

Measuring and testing

Volume or rate of flow

Using turbine

7320422, G01P 506

Patent

active

057103801

ABSTRACT:
An energy-efficient, miniature, hot sensor anemometer designed for battery operation, including an hot airflow sensor, exposed omnidirectionally to the ambient air, for measuring speed of airflow. The anemometer is a subsystem incorporated in a miniature, self-contained environmental monitor. The sensor's electrical resistance changes in relation to the sensor's temperature, and is a function of the ambient air temperature and the speed of airflow to which said sensor is exposed. The anemometer operates in a cyclic mode such that said sensor is preheated, by passing electrical current pulses through it, to a first temperature value above the ambient air temperature, the electrical current flow through said sensor is then terminated, and the sensor, exposed to the airflow, is allowed to cool. The electrical resistance of the sensor changes in response to the cooling of the sensor through convection transfer of its heat to the moving air molecules. A timing circuit is activated at a known second point when the sensor resistance reaches a value corresponding to a certain temperature below the first temperature to which the airflow sensor was preheated. The sensor continues to be cooled by the airflow until its resistance reaches another certain resistance value, corresponding to a third lower temperature, still above the ambient. A timing circuit is stopped at that instance. The time interval between said second and third resistance values corresponding to the preset higher and lower temperature points of said airflow sensor is measured, and the result is related for a ambient air temperature, used as a factor, to the speed of the airflow. In this cyclic mode of operation the average current drain on the battery is significantly lower than the current drain in conventional continuously operating hot sensor anemometers, thus anemometer can operate over extended periods in a portable mode from small conventional batteries.

REFERENCES:
patent: 2953022 (1960-09-01), Laub
patent: 3081628 (1963-03-01), Salera
patent: 3922912 (1975-12-01), Bradbury et al.
patent: 4860583 (1989-08-01), Olson
patent: 5339688 (1994-08-01), Johansson et al.
patent: 5413111 (1995-05-01), Wilkinson

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