MALAVIYA NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

CHEMICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

REPORT ON:
HOT WIRE ANEMOMETER
COURSE TITLE
PROCESS INSTRUMENTATION
DATE:11 NOVEMBER 2016
SUBMITTED TO: SUMBITTED BY:
MR. SHIV OM MEENA RAHUL SHARMA
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR (2015UCH1493)
DESHANI MEET
(2015UCH1499)

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 INDEX

S.NO. PARTICULARS PG.NO.

1 Introduction 3
2 Types of Anemometers 4-7
3 Construction 8-9
4 Working Principle 10-11
5 Advantages 12
6 Disadvantages 13
7 Applications 14
8 References 15

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1) INTRODUCTION:

An anemometer is an instrument used to measure the speed or

velocity of air (gases) either in a contained flow, such as
airflow in a duct, or in unconfined flows, such as
atmospheric wind.

To determine the air velocity, anemometers detect change in

some physical property of the fluid or the effect of the fluid on
a mechanical device inserted into the flow.

The core of the anemometer is an exposed hot wire either

heated up by a constant current or maintained at a constant
temperature (refer to the schematic below). In either case, the
heat lost to fluid convection is a function of the fluid velocity.

An anemometer is a device used for measuring wind speed,

and is a common weather station instrument.

The term is derived from the Greek word "anemos", which

means wind, and is used to describe any wind speed
measurement instrument used in meteorology.

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2)TYPES OF ANEMOMETERS:

There is a wide range of anemometers models for directly

measuring wind and air velocity. The four most popular
models are:

1.Vane Anemometers.
2.Thermal Anemometers.
3.Thermal Anemometers with Velocity/Temperature Profiling.
4.Cup Anemometers.

1.Vane Anemometer:
One of the other forms of mechanical velocity anemometer is
the vane anemometer. It may be described as a windmill or a
propeller anemometer. Unlike the Robinson anemometer
whose axis of rotation is vertical, the axis on the vane
anemometer must be parallel to the direction of the wind and
therefore horizontal. Furthermore, since the wind varies in
direction and the axis has to follow its changes, a wind vane or
some other contrivance to fulfill the same purpose must be
employed.

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2.Thermal Anemometer:

Thermal anemometers use a very fine wire (on the order of

several micrometers) or element heated up to some
temperature above the ambient. Air flowing past over has a
cooling effect. As the electrical resistance of most metals is
dependent upon the temperature of the metal (tungsten is a
popular choice for hot wires), a relationship can be obtained
between the resistance of the wire and the flow velocity.

Several ways of implementing this exist, and hot-wire devices

can be further classified as CCA (Constant-Current
Anemometer), CVA (Constant-Voltage Anemometer) and
CTA (Constant-Temperature Anemometer). The voltage
output from these anemometers is thus the result of some sort
of circuit within the device trying to maintain the specific
variable (current, voltage or temperature) constant.

Constant-temperature anemometers are popular because of

their high-frequency response, low electronic noise level,
immunity from sensor burnout when airflow suddenly drops,
compatibility with hot film sensors, and their applicability to
liquid or gas flows.

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Constant-power anemometers do not have a feedback system.
Temperature is simply proportional to flow rate. They are less
popular because their zero-flow reading is not stable,
temperature and velocity response is slow, and temperature
compensation is limited.

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3.Thermal Anemometers with Velocity/Temperature Profiling:

Thermal anemometer profiling systems have the smallest

available sensor. The sensors measure both velocity and
temperature. The multi-point data-logging system allows the
user to profile flow characteristics in the application and
analyze the data graphically. These are commonly used in
wind tunnels for circuit board and heat sink analysis.

4.Cup Anemometers:

It consisted of four hemispherical cups mounted on horizontal

arms, which were mounted on a vertical shaft. The air flow
past the cups in any horizontal direction turned the shaft at a
rate that was proportional to the wind speed. Therefore,
counting the turns of the shaft over a set time period produced
a value proportional to the average wind speed for a wide
range of speeds. On an anemometer with four cups, it is easy
to see that since the cups are arranged symmetrically on the
end of the arms, the wind always has the hollow of one cup
presented to it and is blowing on the back of the cup on the
opposite end of the cross.

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3) CONSTRUCTION:

Typically, the anemometer wire is made of platinum or

tungsten and is 4 ~ 10 µm (158 ~ 393 µin) in diameter and 1
mm (0.04 in) in length.

Typical commercially available hot-wire anemometers have a

flat frequency response (< 3 dB) up to 17 kHz at the average
velocity of 9.1 m/s (30 ft/s), 30 kHz at 30.5 m/s (100 ft/s), or
50 kHz at 91 m/s (300 ft/s).

In liquid flow or rugged gas flow, a platinum hot-film coated

on a 25 ~ 150 mm (1 ~ 6 in) diameter quartz fiber or hollow
glass tube can be used instead, as shown in the schematic
below.

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Another alternative is a pyrex glass wedge coated with a thin
platinum hot-film at the edge tip, as shown schematically
below.

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4) WORKING PRINCIPLE:

The principal of a hot wire anemometer is based on a heated

element from which heat is extracted by the colder impact
airflow. The temperature of the hot wire is kept constant via a
regulating switch, and the current (amp draw measured
internally) is directly proportional to the air velocity. When
using a hot wire in turbulent air streams the measured results
can be impacted by turbulent airflow striking the measurement
sensor from multiple directions. This could indicate a higher
measured value than a vane probe. This characteristic is
typically prevalent in ducts where turbulent airflow can occur
even at very low velocities.

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11
5)Advantages:

1.excellent spatial resolution.

2.cost is relatively cheap.

3.high frequency response.

4.good spartial and temporal resolution.

5. turbulent flow can easily be measured.

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6)Disadvantages:

1. Fragile, can be used only in clean gas flows.

2. Needs to be recalibrated frequently due to dust

accumulation (unless the flow is very clean).

3. High cost.

4. Probes are not sensitive to flow direction.

5. Restricted to low and moderate turbulent

intensity flows.

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7)Applications:

1. Used in weather stations to measure the mean

velocity.

2. Anemometers are widely used for air duct

balancing.

3. Anemometers are currently used as the industry

standard for wind resource assessment studies.

4. They are commonly used in wind tunnels for

circuit board and heat sink analysis.

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8)Reference:

1)https://www.trutechtools.com/Measuring-
Airlfow-with-a-Hot-WireAnemometer_c_1001.html

2)http://www.omega.com/prodinfo/anemometers.ht
ml

3)http://www.efunda.com/designstandards/sensors/h
ot_wires/hot_wires_intro.cfm

4)http://www-g.eng.cam.ac.uk/whittle/current-
research/hph/hot-wire/hot-wire.html

5)http://www.slideshare.net/snesajid/anemometer-
14285929

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