Measuring and testing – Fluid flow direction – With velocity determination
Patent
1997-07-21
1999-11-09
Oen, William
Measuring and testing
Fluid flow direction
With velocity determination
G01F 1300, G01P 500
Patent
active
059792345
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to a method and a device for measuring atmospheric wind, or more generally the motion of a fluid medium, by means of an acoustic method and also to uses of the method and device.
BACKGROUND
When testing flight vehicles, it is often necessary or beneficial to obtain knowledge of the prevailing wind conditions near the flight path. Existing methods of wind measurement normally supply results in specific points that are either located at considerable distances from the actual flight path or do not give measurements at a the correct time. Around an airport or testing site there is a need for monitoring continuously the wind conditions.
The existing methods of wind measurement are based on a wide variety of principles. Typical meteorological methods include the use of different types of anemometers, balloons, etc. Special testing methods may use smoke emission or other optical means. Most known acoustic methods and devices are based, either on measuring the signal propagation speed, i.e. the speed of sound+the wind speed, or the Doppler effect. In particular, ultrasonic anemometers and sodar systems use these principles. Several such methods and suitable devices are disclosed in U.S. patents U.S. Pat. No. 3,379,060 (time), U.S. Pat. No. 4,031,756 (ultrasonic), U.S. Pat. No. 3,693,433 (ultrasonic anemometer), U.S. Pat. No. 4,038,870 (ultrasonic), the published West German patent application DE-A 1 523 248 (signal propagation time), U.S. patents U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,462 (sodar), U.S. Pat. No. 4,882,931 (air flow), U.S. Pat. No. 4,891,976 (resonance chamber), U.S. Pat. No. 4,890,488 (ultrasonic anemometer), and the French patents FR 1.012.054 and FR 1.142.353 (compressible air flow).
SUMMARY
It is an object of the invention to provide a method and a device for measuring the wind along a ray that starts at a sound source of known location and ends at a detector device.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method and a device for measuring the wind in a region between a path in the atmosphere, typically a flight path or trajectory, and a detector device.
These objects are acheived by the invention, the features and scope of which appear from the appended claims.
Thus, the method uses a sound source, fixed or moving along a known trajectory, and measures the direction of the sound received at the detector location. The source may be natural or artificial. The mean wind components perpendicular to a sound ray from the source to the detector are calculated. When the source is moving along its trajectory the change of the mean values can be used to determine the local wind near the source trajectory.
The detector devices comprise one-or more receivers having acoustic sensors, which are arranged to measure the phase direction of the sound waves arriving from one or more fixed or moving sound sources. Along the sound rays from the sources to the detectors, a mean value of the cross wind and its gradient can be calculated from the measurements. Typical sources may be aircraft and other flight vehicles or objects or, optionally, specially arranged sound sources.
Thus generally, wind velocity or velocity of a fluid is determined from measurements of the sound from one or more signal sources, that generate sound and are geometrically fixed or moving, in the latter case having known trajectories. The direction of a sound wave is then determined or measured at a detector location, and the determined or measured direction is compared to the direction from the detector location to the point, from which that sound wave has started, the direction of which was determined or calculated. From this direction and the position of the sound source the average velocity is determined for two movement components of that region of the fluid that are located between the detector location and that point, the components being perpendicular to the sound ray, that corresponds to the sound wave.
In the case where the signal source is at several different, known locations, the directions can be determined
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