The Anemometric Application of an Electrical Glow Discharge in Transverse Air Streams

Author: Mettler, Ruben Fred

Year: 1949

Degree: Dissertation (Ph.D.)

Advisors: Lindvall, Frederick C.; Liepmann, Hans Wolfgang

Committee Member: Unknown, Unknown

Option: Electrical Engineering; Aeronautics

DOI: 10.7907/RTBA-4692

Abstract

The possibility of using an electrical glow discharge for quantitative turbulence measurements is experimentally investigated. It is found that a glow discharge is stable in a transverse air stream throughout the subsonic velocity range, and at supersonic air velocities up to a Mach number of 1.5, with no indication that this Mach number represents an upper velocity limit. A calibration procedure is developed and used in measuring the decay of turbulence behind a grid at low subsonic velocities. Comparison with decay measurements made independently with a hot wire anemometer under similar flow conditions shows that the glow discharge data is as yet quite badly scattered and somewhat inconsistent.

A quantitative theory of the dark current anemometer is presented and gives results which agree in form with reported experimental results. A qualitative theory of the mechanism of the glow discharge anemometer and the first steps of the corresponding quantitative analysis are also presented.

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