Anemometer: Types, Uses and It’s Working Principle
The wind is certainly one of the first words or sensory images that comes to mind when you think of the word “weather,” a phenomenon that can cause catastrophic damage but remains a cherished part of almost everyone’s life experience. Knowing the speed of the weather at any time – or at least the direction in which it’s blowing if you can’t get outside to detect it with your own senses – in your area or in a location you plan to visit soon is beneficial information. Wind isn’t something you can see very easily. It is difficult to time it with a stopwatch in the same way that you would measure the speed of an Olympic sprinter or a race car! Fortunately, scientists are incredibly inventive and they’ve devised some pretty clever ways of measuring wind speed using devices known as anemometers. Let’s take a closer look at how they work!
What is an Anemometer?
An anemometer is an instrument that is used to determine the speed, intensity, amplitude, and direction of the wind. It is a tool that measures wind velocity and wind pressure, one example is the Fluke 925 Vane Anemometer. The parts of the anemometer include three to four cups connected to the horizontal arms of the most common sort of anemometer. A vertical rod is attached to the arms. The cups rotate while the wind blows, thereby making the rod spin. The stronger the wind blows, the more quickly the rod spins. It also used to measure how windy it is before sailing on a sailboat. An anemometer might be used by an air conditioning repair technician to measure the output of a unit they are troubleshooting. It is utilized during the HVAC installation of air conditioners to measure the airflow.
In this digital age, we have witnessed tremendous progress in the electronic market. We now have a wide range of devices and instruments for measuring climate change, low and high temperatures, and wind speed. In this section, I will describe a few digital devices that are used to measure wind speed with various corners.
Mechanical Anemometer
Mechanical anemometer uses small propellers to power their generators, similar to miniature wind turbines. As the wind blows, it spins the fan blades and a small generator nearby, which works similarly to a push-bike motor. The generator is linked to an electronic anemometer circuit, which provides real-time data on the digital anemometer’s wind speed display.
Ultrasonic Anemometer
An ultrasonic anemometer has two or three pairs of sound whisperers and headsets riding at right angles to one another. In the wind, each teller continuously beams high-frequency sound to its specific earpiece. Circuits in electronic anemometers calculate the time it takes for sound to travel from each teller to the equivalent receiver. Depending on how the wind blows, it will affect some sound beams more than others, slightly slowing or speeding them up. The circuits analyze the change in ray speeds to determine how fast the wind is blowing.
Doppler Laser Anemometer
The doppler laser anemometer sends one or more safe electromagnetic laser rays straight up into the air as the reference beam and detects the reflected rays back down from dust constituents, water dews, and so on. Wind movements move those floating particles around, causing the measurement sunbeam to differ slightly from the reference beam. The change in frequency is known as a Doppler shift, and it is similar to how a fire engine alarm changes pitch as it speeds past you, from note to toe. You can precisely measure the speed of whatever caused the frequency shift by calculating it.
Hot-Wire Anemometer
Hot-wire anemometer employs an electrically animated hot wire, similar to the thread in an old light bulb, through which the wind blows. As the wire cools, the electrical collision changes can be measured to determine the amount of cooling and wind speed. Hot-wire anemometers are primarily well-suited for measuring turbulent airflow, and they are widely used in manufacturing for things like fluid flow measurements in airplane engines.
An ideal anemometer will give you a wind speed reading to within 0.5 m/s (2km/h or 1mph), but that is frequently far more precise than you need. Remember that wind speed is not constant; it varies all the time. Assume you’re in a winding passageway with a continuous and detailed measurement of speed. In that case, any measurement you make will be, at best, a rough controller to how fast the air is moving.