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NASA NTRS2004

Thermodynamic Pressure/Temperature Transducer Health Check

A device and procedure for checking the health of a pressure transducer in situ is provided. The procedure includes measuring a fixed change in pressure above ambient pressure and a fixed change in pressure below ambient pressure. This is done by first sealing an enclosed volume around the transducer with a valve. A piston inside the sealed volume is increasing the pressure. A fixed pressure below ambient pressure is obtained by opening the valve, driving the piston The output of the pressure transducer is recorded for both the overpressuring and the underpressuring. By comparing this data with data taken during a preoperative calibration, the health of the transducer is determined from the linearity, the hysteresis, and the repeatability of its output. The further addition of a thermometer allows constant offset error in the transducer output to be determined.

Christopher D Immer↗

NASA NTRS2002

Extreme Wind Velocity Measurement System

A wind velocity measurement system employs two different principles of physics to measure wind speed: (1) the aerodynamic force imparted to a low profile, rigidly mounted cylindrical rod, and (2) the vibrating frequency of the rod as vortices are shed from the rod's cylindrical surface. A set of strain gages is used as a common sensor for both measurements, and these provide force measurements imparted by the wind on the rod. The signals generated by the strain gages are fed to processing circuitry that calculates the wind speed and direction from the signals. The force measurement is proportional to the square of the wind speed. Since it is a vector quantity, it can also be used to derive wind direction. The vortex shedding frequency is a scalar quantity and is linearly proportional to wind speed. This frequency can be calculated by analyzing the force measurements generated by the strain gages over time. Both of the wind velocity calculations can be advantageously used by the processing circuitry to generate an accurate wind velocity reading.

Jan A Zysko↗