Velocity measurements:

Hot Wire Anemometer

Principles of hot wire anemometer
Governing equation
 Governing equation
The electrical power input is equal to the power lost to
convective heat transfer,
where I is the input current, Rw is the resistance of the wire, Tw
and Tf are the temperatures of the wire and fluid respectively, Aw
is the projected wire surface area, and h is the heat transfer
coefficient of the wire. The wire resistance Rw is also a function
of temperature according to,

where a is the thermal coefficient of resistance and RRef is the

resistance at the reference temperature TRef.
 Governing equation
The heat transfer coefficient h is a function of fluid velocity vf
according to King's law,
where a, b, and c are coefficients obtained from calibration (c ~
0.5). Combining the above three equations allows us to eliminate
the heat transfer coefficient h,

Continuing, we can solve for the fluid velocity,

Governing equation: Assumptions
 Types of Hot wire anemometer
• Two types of thermal (hot-wire) anemometers are commonly
used: “constant-temperature” and “constant-current”.
Constant temperature Hot-Wire anemometer:
The current of constant magnitude is passed through the wire.
The Wheatstone bridge is also kept on the constant voltage.
The heat is transferred from the wire to
the fluid.
The heat is directly proportional to the
resistance of the wire.
If heat reduces, that means the
resistance of wire also reduces.
The Wheatstone bridge measures the
variation in resistance which is equal to
the flow rate of the liquid.
 Constant temperature Hot-Wire anemometer

For a hot-wire anemometer powered by an adjustable current to

maintain a constant temperature, Tw and Rw are constants.
The fluid velocity is a function of input current and flow
temperature,

Furthermore, the temperature of the flow Tf can be measured.

The fluid velocity is then reduced to a function of input current
only.
 Constant current Hot-Wire anemometer
The current of constant magnitude is passed through the wire.
The Wheatstone bridge is also kept on the constant voltage.
For a hot-wire anemometer powered by a constant current I, the
velocity of flow is a function of the temperatures of the wire and
the fluid,

If the flow temperature is measured

independently, the fluid velocity can be
reduced to a function of wire
temperature Tw alone. In turn, the wire
temperature is related to the measured
wire resistance Rw. Therefore, the fluid
velocity can be related to the wire
resistance.
 CCA vs CTA
• CCA is used in non-isothermal situations.
• The constant-temperature anemometers are more
widely used than constant-current anemometers due
to their reduced sensitivity to flow variations.
• Noting that the wire must be heated up high enough
(above the fluid temperature) to be effective, if the
flow were to suddenly slow down, the wire might burn
out in a constant-current anemometer.
• Conversely, if the flow were to suddenly speed up, the
wire may be cooled completely resulting in a constant-
current unit being unable to register quality data.