Before using an anemometer, it is important to determine how it should be positioned and what component of the total velocity its measurement represents. Other wind speed meter, such as vane anemometers, are used with the tip aligned with the total velocity vector. With the continuous updating of technology, the current anemometers can provide a variety of highly accurate data. The earliest anemometers originated hundreds of years ago and were used to roughly measure wind. If the cup anemometer is mounted with the shaft perpendicular to the horizontal, it will measure only the component of the wind that is parallel to the ground. An anemometer is an instrument that measures the velocity of air, sometimes called a wind anemometer. The cup anemometer (used in weather stations) measures the air velocity in a plane perpendicular to the axis of its rotation cups. The term "thermal anemometer" is often used to mean any anemometer that uses a relationship between heat transfer and velocity to determine velocity.
To do so, count the number of times the cup with the red mark passes in front of you in 30 seconds. It measures wind speed by running an electrical current across a very thin, short wire.
The vane anemometer, thermal anemometer and cup anemometer (typically used in weather stations) are mostly used to measure the mean velocity, while the hot wire anemometers are usually used when turbulence characteristics are being measured, such as transverse measurements in a cross-section. Take your anemometer outside and measure the wind speed. A hot wire anemometer is an instrument used in fluid mechanics as a research tool. just catches the wind and spin, others have a weathervane that measures. There are many different types of anemometers suited for different environments, situations, and measurements. Because of this, scientists us a tool called an Anemometer to measure windspeed. They are less popular because their zero-flow reading is not stable, temperature and velocity response is slow, and temperature compensation is limited.Īn anemometer usually measures gas flows that are in turbulent flow conditions. An anemometer is a device that is used to measure wind speed. Temperature is simply proportional to flow rate. Anemometers are usually classified as constant-temperature, or constant-power anemometers.Ĭonstant-temperature anemometers are popular because of their high-frequency response, low electronic noise level, immunity from sensor burnout when airflow suddenly drops, compatibility with hotfilm sensors, and their applicability to liquid or gas flows.Ĭonstant-power anemometers do not have a feedback system. The four most popular anemometer models are: Vane Anemometers, Thermal Anemometers, Thermal Anemometers with Velocity / Temperature Profiling and Cup Anemometers. There is a wide range of anemometers models for directly measuring wind and air velocity.
An anemometer can measure the total velocity magnitude, the velocity magnitude on a horizontal plane, or the velocity component in a particular direction.