Cross-Correlation Velocimetry for Measurement of Velocity and Temperature Profiles in Low-Speed, Turbulent, Nonisothermal Flows

A technique utilizing thermocouple pairs as sensors to measure velocity and temperature profiles in low-speed, turbulent, nonisothermal flows is described here. In this technique, Cross-Correlation Velocimetry (CCV), the temperature-time records from a pair of thermocouples, one downstream of the other, are cross-correlated to determine the flow’s preferred mean velocity while temperature is measured directly. The velocity measurements have undergone extensive verification using hotwire, pitot tube, and Laser-Doppler Velocimetry to determine the degree of confidence in this technique. This work demonstrates that the CCV technique is quite reliable and can measure the mean preferred component of the convective velocity with better than ±5 percent certainty. Application of this technique to the measurement of velocities in a ceiling jet induced by a fire plume is briefly presented here.