Just my two “sense”: A novel sensor design for two-component velocity measurements*

A unique system for measuring multiple velocity components is proposed. The system relies on the Nanoscale Thermal Anemometry Probe (NSTAP) developed at Princeton, which can be operated in two distinct modes for measuring velocity: constant current hot-wire anemometry (CCA) and a new strain-based, velocity measurement technique called elastic filament velocimetry (EFV). The individual operating modes can be achieved using the same circuitry, however each mode is sensitive to a different component of the flow velocity. By switching between these modes at a sufficiently high frequency, measurements of the two velocity components can be obtained. The switching is characterized and shown to have a sufficiently high bandwidth to obtain unattenuated turbulence measurements.