Vorticity measurement by a pressure probe

Abstract

Summary An analysis is presented of the output of a pressure probe, comprised essentially of four yawmeters, which was designed to yield vorticity information. It is shown that if the probe is utilised in flows which have vorticity dominated by variation of either the direction or the magnitude of the velocity then the probe output may be easily related to vorticity. It is argued that such flows should be readily recognised, and they include many situations of interest involving vortex flows, boundary layers and wakes. Earlier work had already demonstrated that the probe is useful in exploring regions of predominantly streamwise vorticity. The present work shows a result with the probe used in a boundary layer flow where the vorticity is nearly normal to the local flow. Use of the probe in unsteady flow is briefly examined.