A mm-scale aeroelastic oscillation-based anemometer

• Main Author: McKay, Ian Salmon
• Other Authors: Gareth H. McKinley.
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2012
• Subjects: Mechanical Engineering.
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/72845

Thesis (S.B.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, 2012. === Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. === Includes bibliographical references (p. 35-36). === The flutter of a thin filament can provide a good indication of fluid velocity at small scales. By combining a 'fishtail'-shaped filament's aeroelastic and vortex-forced flutter modes, its oscillation frequency can be confined to scale smoothly with fluid velocity. This principle has been used to produce a low-cost, mm-scale anemometer that measures air flow to ±(5% + 0.5m/s) from 1-25m/s. This paper describes the prototype and the experiments that informed its design, and shows how a similar system could operate at far smaller scales than existing anemometers. === by Ian McKay. === S.B.