The Anemometric Application of an Electrical Glow Discharge in Transverse Air Streams

Citation

Mettler, Ruben Fred (1949) The Anemometric Application of an Electrical Glow Discharge in Transverse Air Streams. Dissertation (Ph.D.), California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/RTBA-4692. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechETD:etd-11032003-110318

Abstract

The possibility of using an electrical glow discharge for quantitative turbulence measurements is experimentally investigated. It is found that a glow discharge is stable in a transverse air stream throughout the subsonic velocity range, and at supersonic air velocities up to a Mach number of 1.5, with no indication that this Mach number represents an upper velocity limit. A calibration procedure is developed and used in measuring the decay of turbulence behind a grid at low subsonic velocities. Comparison with decay measurements made independently with a hot wire anemometer under similar flow conditions shows that the glow discharge data is as yet quite badly scattered and somewhat inconsistent. A quantitative theory of the dark current anemometer is presented and gives results which agree in form with reported experimental results. A qualitative theory of the mechanism of the glow discharge anemometer and the first steps of the corresponding quantitative analysis are also presented.

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