An oscillating, weakly ionized surface plasma has been investigated for use in turbulent boundary layer viscous drag reduction. The study was based on reports showing that mechanical spanwise oscillations of a wall can reduce viscous drag due to a turbulent boundary layer by up to 40%. It was hypothesized that the plasma induced body force in high electric field gradients of a surface plasma along strip electrodes could also be configured to oscillate the flow. Thin dielectric panels with millimeter-scale, flush- mounted, triad electrode arrays with one and two-phase high voltage excitation were tested. Results showed that while a small oscillation could be obtained, the effect was lost at a low frequency (less than 100Hz). Furthermore, a mean flow was generated during the oscillation that complicates the effect. Hot-wire and pitot probe diagnostics are presented along with phase-averaged images revealing plasma structure.

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Investigation of an Oscillating Surface Plasma for Turbulent Drag Reduction

The time constant of a fine cold wire used as a resistance thermometer can be obtained by a technique which is based on ideas developed for the pulsed‐wire technique for velocity measurement in highly turbulent flows and in regions of flow reversal. The cold wire is placed downstream of, and at right angles to, a wire of larger diameter which is pulsed with a short duration voltage pulse. The response of the cold wire to the change in the temperature of the flow is used to determine the time constant of the wire, once the pulsed wire time constant is known. Frequency responses based on measured time constants for cold wires of 2.5, 1.3, and 0.63 μm diameters are presented as a function of flow velocity.

Determination of time constants of cold wires

Velocity, vorticity, and mach number

Based on the need to characterise the accuracy of hot-wire anemometry (HWA) in high Reynolds number wall-bounded turbulence, we here propose a novel direct method for testing the frequency response of various systems to very high frequency velocity fluctuations (up to 50 kHz). A fully developed turbulent pipe flow is exploited to provide the input velocity perturbations. Utilising the unique capabilities of the Princeton Superpipe, it is possible to explore a variety of turbulent pipe flows at matched Reynolds numbers, but with turbulent energy in different frequency ranges. Assuming Reynolds number similarity, any differences between the appropriately scaled energy spectra for these flows should be indicative of measurement error. Having established the accuracy of this testing procedure, the response of several anemometer and probe combinations is tested. While these tests do not provide a direct or definitive comparison between different anemometers (owing to non-optimal tuning in each case), they do provide useful examples of potential frequency responses that could be encountered in HWA experiments. These results are subsequently used to predict error arising from HWA response for measurements in wall-bounded turbulent flows. For current technology, based on the results obtained here, the frequency response of under- or over-damped HWA systems can only be considered approximately flat up to 5–7 kHz. For flows with substantial turbulent energy in frequencies above this range, errors in measured turbulence quantities due to temporal resolution are increasingly likely.

/pdf/a-direct-measure-of-the-frequency-response-of-hot-wire-gm7vy1sp0e.pdf

A direct measure of the frequency response of hot-wire anemometers: temporal resolution issues in wall-bounded turbulence

Perturbation equations describing the response of hot wires and hot films operating in a simple constant temperature circuit are developed. The heat transfer model shows that at low frequencies (a( omega /Ks)12/ >1) the hot film rolls off at 30 dB/decade. Experimental measurements of the circuit frequency response to a voltage perturbation for both a hot film and a hot wire show good agreement with theory if the calculations use the measured probe time constants, and when thermal end losses are taken into account.

https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/0022-3735/8/7/007/pdf

Analysis of a simple circuit for constant temperature anemometry

A microwave simulator for controlled variation of air-flow velocity in the dc to 500 kHz frequency range is described. The simulator serves for measurement of the transfer function of hot-wire and hot-film transducers used in turbulence research. The microwave simulator consists of an X-band power modulated klystron which delivers electromagnetic energy to the transducer, mounted in a small-size calibration wind-tunnel supplying the transducer mean flow velocity (in the 0 to 80 m/s range). Experimental results are given for the absolute value of the transfer function in a 60 dB range, of a hot-wire tungsten transducer (5 micron diameter X 1 mm long) and of a platinum-plated quartz hot-film transducer (25 micron diameter × 0.5 mm long).

I. Kidron

Papers

Measurement of the Transfer Function of Hot-Wire and Hot-Film Turbulence Transducers