Experimental study on hot-wire type air flow rate measurement system considering ambient temperature compensations

온도보상을 고려한 열선형 공기유량 측정시스템에 관한 실험적 연구

The purpose of this study is to perform modelings and experiments to measure air flow rate using hot-wires and a CTA(Constant Temperature Anemometer). The flow rate can be obtained by measuring the heat loss of the hot-wire due to the variations of flow velocity when the hot-wire is maintained at uniform temperature. But the defect of this method is that the output signal changes not only by the flow rate but also by the ambient temperature. Thus, in the present study, a method which compensates the variations of the ambient temperature has been introduced to measure exact flow rate. To be more specific, the bridge circuit of the usual hot-wire anemometer system has been modified in such a way that a temperature resistance sensor and a variable resistance are placed in one of the legs to compensate the different temperature coefficients of both the hot-wire and the temperature compensating resistance for flow velocity or for flow mass up to the flow temperature of 50 .deg.C. Comparing the modeling and experimental results, it has been shown that the compensating point differs as the flow rate varies. Therefore, optimum compensation points are sought to construct the circuit. The present modeling and experimental results may be applied to the design of actual air flow meters for automobiles.