Research on Improvement of Performance of Anemometer Using PTC Thermistor

An anemometer employing the bulk PTC thermistor as the sensing element is investigated in this study. The numerical and experimental works are carried out to improve the sensitivity problem of the element by focusing fluid dynamics point of view. The typical shape of the sensing element has been used as a rectangular type, but this shape has a sensitivity problem because of flow separations on the sharp edge when the flow direction is different from that of the sensing element. In order to reduce the reading error, the installer has to be very careful about the flow direction. The reading error fluctuation by time as well as the sensitivity problem can be improved considerably through this study. It can be concluded that the small change of the sensor shape can improve the performance of the flow sensor.