Euler-Bernoulli Implementation of Spherical Anemometers for High Wind Speed Calculations via Strain Gauges

New measuring methods continue to be developed in the field of wind anemometry for various environments subject to low-speed and high-speed flows, turbulent-present flows, and ideal and non-ideal flows. As a result, anemometry has taken different avenues for these environments from the traditional cup model to sonar, hot-wire, and recent developments with sphere anemometers. Several measurement methods have modeled the air drag force as a quadratic function of the corresponding wind speed. Furthermore, by incorporating non-drag fluid forces in addition to the main drag force, a dynamic set of equations of motion for the deflection and strain of a spherical anemometer's beam can be derived. By utilizing the equations of motion to develop a direct relationship to a measurable parameter, such as strain, an approximation for wind speed based on a measurement is available. These ODE's for the strain model can then be used to relate directly the fluid speed (wind) to the strain along the beam?s length.

The spherical anemometer introduced by the German researcher Holling presents the opportunity to incorporate the theoretical cantilevered Euler-Bernoulli beam with a spherical mass tip to develop a deflection and wind relationship driven by cross-area of the spherical mass and constriction of the shaft or the beam's bending properties.

The application of Hamilton's principle and separation of variables to the Lagrangian Mechanics of an Euler-Bernoulli beam results in the equations of motion for the deflection of the beam as a second order partial differential equation (PDE). The boundary conditions of our beam's motion are influenced by the applied fluid forces of a relative drag force and the added mass and buoyancy of the sphere. Strain gauges will provide measurements in a practical but non-intrusive method and thus the concept of a measuring strain gauge is simulated. Young's Modulus creates a relationship between deflection and strain of an Euler-Bernoulli system and thus a strain and wind relation can be modeled as an ODE.

This theoretical sphere anemometer's second order ODE allows for analysis of the linear and non-linear accuracies of the motion of this dynamic system at conventional high speed conditions.