Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
This article has been downloaded from IOPscience. Please scroll down to see the full text article.
(http://iopscience.iop.org/0031-9120/43/6/005)
View the table of contents for this issue, or go to the journal homepage for more
Download details:
IP Address: 189.173.122.79
The article was downloaded on 19/02/2011 at 23:32
E-mail: rwalls@uabc.mx
Abstract
An inexpensive and easily implemented device to measure wind velocity is
proposed. This prototype has the advantage of being able to measure both the
speed and the direction of the wind in two dimensions. The device utilizes a
computational interface commonly referred to as a mouse. The mouse
proposed for this prototype contains an optical sensor which allows it to
situate itself in space. The prototype utilizes a pendulum with an attached
drag body. The pendulum’s drag body interacts with the fluid in motion,
causing an angle with respect to the vertical. The mouse measures the
displacement of a sphere attached to the pendulum and calculates the angle.
The resulting angle determines the relationship between the drag force and
the wind speed, thereby allowing the mouse to calculate the velocity. A
MATLAB script was written to process the data received from the mouse.
After calibration, the program determines the relationship between the pixels
measured and the pendulum’s angle, and so obtains information about the
wind. This system (device and software) eliminates human error in data
collection and storage, thereby considerably reducing the time and cost
associated with measuring wind velocity.
S Supplementary data are available from stacks.iop.org/physed/43/593
Physical preliminaries
If we consider the case of a pendulum with weight
(W ), that, upon interacting with fluid in motion,
produces an angle with respect to the vertical (θ ),
resulting from the drag force ( Fa ) that the fluid Fa
exercises over the pendulum, then the resulting Figure 1. Right triangle representing the balance of
opposing force is the tension (T ). This can be forces obtained by modifying the free-body diagram.
described with a diagram of a free body, where
a balance of forces is obtained, as is shown in
following parameters can be considered constants,
figure 1. Using the trigonometric relationship
and that they may all be included in a constant:
between the angles and sides of a right triangle,
the following equation is obtained:
2W
K ≡ . (6)
Fa Cd Aρ
tan θ = . (1)
W
Then equation for the velocity is
Solving for the drag force in equation (1),
√
v = K tan θ . (7)
Fa = W tan θ. (2)
If the value of the constant K is known, then
The drag force of an object surrounded by
only the deviation of the angle with respect to the
a stationary flow is defined by the following vertical is necessary to obtain a measurement of
equation [6]:
the velocity of the flow.
Fa = 12 Cd Aρv 2 (3)
Experimental device
where Cd is the drag coefficient, A is the
The main purpose of this project is to measure
area of the projection of the object on a plane
the drag angle with an optical computer mouse.
perpendicular to the direction of motion, ρ is the
The mouse is positioned on the upper portion
density of the fluid, and v is the flow speed.
of a sphere, which has free movement, while a
Setting equations (2) and (3) equal to each
pendulum is attached to the lower portion of the
other, the following equation is obtained:
sphere. When the pendulum interacts with fluid in
W tan θ = 12 Cd Aρv 2 . (4) motion, it changes its alignment, thereby causing
the attached sphere to rotate. The mouse detects
Solving for the velocity, we find the rotation of the sphere, as shown in figure 2.
It was necessary to build a device that first
2W tan θ allowed the free movement of the sphere when
v= . (5) the drag object was interacting with the fluid,
Cd Aρ
and second, allowed the mouse to detect the
If we consider that the fluid and the object do movement of the sphere. The device is mounted
not change with time, it can be supposed that the on a triangular frame, inside which a sphere is
55 16
50
14
45
12
40
speed (mph)
35 10
30 8
25 6
20 4
15
2
10
0
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400
0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5
tan1/2 (θ) pixelsx
Figure 6. Angles plotted against the horizontal
displacement of the cursor in pixels.
Figure 5. Calibration of the prototype with a protractor. The experimental device was calibrated
to measure the velocity of the air with K
(equation (7)) equal to the slope of equation (10).
The drag body must have the same weight (W ) and
Equation (8) describes a straight line with slope α . area ( A) as the drag body of the weather gauge.
Substituting equation (8) in (7): For obtaining the pixel–angle relationship,
a protractor was placed on the base of the
v = tan(α · pixels) · K . (9) cage assembly (figure 5), and for each angle of
inclination (θ ) the movement of the surface of the
For the components: sphere was measured in pixels by the mouse in
both the x -axis and the y -axis.
vx = tan(αx · pixelsx ) · K (9.1)
The measurements of the pixels against the
angles are shown in figures 6 and 7. The
vy = tan(α y · pixels y ) · K . (9.2) equation obtained from the linear regression, with
a correlation coefficient of 0.995, for the x -axis
The following section contains a description of was
how the estimation of the constant K was carried θx = 4.16 × 10−2 · pixels.
out.
For the y -axis, with a correlation coefficient of
Calibration 0.998, the equation obtained was
A commercial weather gauge (SELL-O-CRAFT θ y = 5.09 × 10−2 · pixels.
Sheboygan) was used for the calibration of the
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
pixelsy
get(0, ‘screensize’).
get(0, ‘PointerLocation’).
The calibration of the prototype is simple.
The high correlation coefficients obtained suggest
Advantages and disadvantages that the measurement of the wind velocity is
The materials of the proposed digital anemometer reliable.
are available at low cost. The software was This system can be easily adapted for other
designed with elementary programming concepts, environments, such as marine coastal zones or
making the reading and storage of the measured fluid mechanics laboratories. It is possible to
digital data and its subsequent processing efficient. measure the velocity in two dimensions of almost