A Sensor Based on Silicon Technology for Turbulence Measurements

Journal article, 1989

A very small and highly sensitive flow velocity sensor has been designed and fabricated using silicon microelectronic technology. To determine the performance of this silicon sensor, comparisons with a conventional hot-wire sensor were made in a well defined two-dimensional turbulent flat-plate boundary layer at a constant Reynolds number of 4.2*106. The silicon sensor was found to have a spatial and frequency resolutions that make it suitable for turbulence measurements. In the investigated flow field the new silicon sensor measures profiles of the mean velocity and the turbulence intensity with accuracy as the hot wire.