A pulsed-wire technique for velocity and temperature measurements in natural convection flows

A pulsed-wire probe based on the use of one or two parallel wires, capable of measuring the velocity and the temperature in natural convection flows is described. These measurements are based on the analysis of the relaxation response of a pulsing wire, submitted to a very short electrical pulse. The analysis of the temperature variation on an optional second receiver wire, gives information about the velocity direction. The implementation simplicity of this probe, its good spatial precision, the lack of thermal contamination of the flow, as well as the possibility of obtaining simultaneous velocity and temperature measurements, allow the integration of the device in a multi-point measurement network, capable to deliver thermal and dynamic cartographies of unsteady convection flows.