^C/VT/K')Z23 >N J Eh < O < NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR AERONAUTICS TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM 1223 SOME EXPERIENCES REGARDING THE NONLINEARITY OF HOT WIRES By R. Betchov and W. Welling Translation of "Quelques experiences sur la non-linearite des fils chauds." Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen. Mededeling No. 66 uit het Laboratorium voor Aero- en Hydrod3niamica der Technische Hogeschool te Delft. Reprinted from Proceedings Vol. LIII, No. 4, 1950. NACA Washington June 1952 1^ OF FLORIDA ^JTS DEPARTMENT .^,,v,.:,6T0N SCIENCE LIBR/fY PC. BOX 117011 GAINESVILLE. FL 32611-7011 JSA NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE FOR AERONAUTICS TECHNICAL MEM0RANDUI4 1223 SOME EXPERIENCES REGARDING THE NONLINEARITY OF HOT WIRES* By R. Betchov and W. Welling We compare here the results of some experiences with the formulas established in our preceding report "Nonlinear Theory of a Hot-Wire Anemometer." We shall show that the nonlinear term plays a role as important as the thermal conduction in the calculation of the thermal inertia of the hot wire . I. INTRODUCTION According to our nonlinear theory-'- the equation of the hot wire must contain the terms expressing: (a) The heat transfer from the wire to the air in proportion to the temperature T (b) The heat transfer in proportion to T'^ (nonlinearity) (c) The heat conduction at the ends of the wire (d) The thermal inertia due to the specific heat and the mass of the metal We shall study first the effects (a), (b), and (c) in treating the case of 11 wires of small diameter (2 microns), and then turn to the effect of inertia. We refer without further specifications to the formulas of the nonlinear theory, numbered from 1 to 73^ and shall continue with the number 7^. II. PREPARATION OF THE WIRES We prepared our wires by utilizing Wollaston wire of platinum, bent in U form and soldered to a support before being cleaned. In "Quelq_ues experiences sur la non-linearite des lils chauds." Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen. Mededeling No. GG uit het Laboratorium voor Aero- en Hydrodynamica der Technische Hoge school te Delft. Reprinted from Proceedings Vol. LIII, No. h, 1950, pp. 432-U39. -'-Betchov, R. : Theorie non-lineaire de I'anemometre a fil chaud, (Meded. 6l) . Proc. Kon. Ned. Adad. v. Wetensch. Amsterdam, 52, 19^9, pp. 195-207. 2 MCA TM 1223 order to remove the silver, we used a jet of an acid solution f 50- percent distilled water, 50-percent HNO3J and electrolysis with a cur- rent of 5 to 20 mllliamperes . Figure 1 indicates the arrangement used. The jet does not break the wire. Nevertheless, if the diameter is smaller than 5 microns, the dust particles entrained by the liquid are dangerous and the solution must be filtered each time before using. The flask is mounted on a support which can be precision adjusted. Fig- ure 1 shows the sequence of operations viewed under the microscope. One can obtain extremely sh6rt wires by displacing the jet perpen- dicularly to the wire, so as to remove the silver, sometimes in front, sometimes at the rear. The cleaned wire is rinsed with ordinary water and brought to a faint incandescence so as to permit microscopic examina- tion. Only wires that redden in a regular and symmetrical manner are used. III. STATIC CALIBRATION We give here the results obtained with 11 wires of platinum with lengths between 0.25 and 1.6 millimeters and with diameters of about 2 microns. Figure 2 indicates the cold resistances and the lengths and shows the order of magnitude of the individual variations. Every wire had been calibrated with air streams of 2 to 10 meters per second and we studied the magnitude H = -^li_ ilk) R - Ro as a function of the ratio R/Rq- Extrapolating starting from the measured values of H, we determined the limiting value Hq, corresponding to the case R/Rq = 1- Our wires gave 11 values of Hq for V = 2 meters per second which we indicated as functions of the wire lengths in figure 3- The theory yields for I tending toward zero ^° == 1 - tant ^0/^0 ^'^^^ NACA TM 1223 vith and we plotted the theoretical curves corresponding to the values * -2 -2 Zq = 6 X 10" millimeter and 8 x 10 millimeter. One can see that, if I tends toward Infinity, Hq tends toward the value 500 milli- amperes^.^ King's formula gives us, for d = 2.1 microns, A = 500 mil- liamperes and we thus can see that the effect of conduction at low temperature corresponds to the theory. When the resistance increases, the effect of thermal conduction tends to make H diminish. We take as example the wire No. 8, of a length of 0.75 millimeter. Figure k gives us the experimental values of H, measured twice, with a one -day interval. Taking into account only the conduction, one obtains for H the dotted curve, according to H = A 1 - (I^/A) tanh I A (77) 1 - tanh 1/5 The solidly drawn curve was calculated taking into consideration the nonlinearity according to formula (36) with the coefficients 7 = l.lif X 10"-*, A = 450 milliamperes , Zq = 7 x 10~ millimeters. We see that it corresponds to the experience of the first day, and that one has about Hq = 555. The values of H measured the next day are lower. Probably the differences are caused by dust particles which have settled on the wire during that time interval and produce an enlarge- ment of the region of immobile air around the wire, thus reducing the transport of heat by the air stream. We studied the increase of H with the temperature and for every wire treated we measured the ratio LRq = H VKq ^ ^/ - ^o So (78) This ratio can be calculated and figure 5 shows the experimental and theoretical results. The theory seems satisfactory to us, in spite of the deviations of the points . NA.CA TM 1223 IV, DYNAI-lIC CALIBRATION We measured the response of a hot wire to fluctuation of the elec-. trie current. For that purpose, the wire was placed in a bridge (fig. 6) fed by the plate flow of a pentode. The heating current can he modulated with the aid of a low-frequency oscillator; the alternating intensity i is indicated by a special apparatus. We had Rx = 100 and R2 = 1,000 ohms; the self-induction L compensated both the self- induction of the line leading to -the hot wire and its ohmic resistance. The bridge electromotive force was applied to an analyzer which trans- mitted only the signal of the frequency of the oscillator, permitting operation without impediment by turbulence. The filtered signal was transmitted to a cathodic oscillograph which enabled us to balance the bridge for the frequency used. Since analyzer and oscillograph were grounded, it was necessary to especially insulate the feeding system. Actually, the rectifier and the oscillator represent, normally, with respect to the alternating network, a capacity of about 5^000 [i\if; this net^^jork is always grounded at some point which introduces an unde- sirable element into the circuit. We eliminated this inconvenience by using a transformer which has a weak capacity between the primary and the secondary. In order to eliminate the skin effect, we had to employ a special line leading to the hot wire. In this manner, the bridge proved satis- factory from to 75 kilocycles. The impedance of the circuit R'C has the purpose of compensating the fluctuations of resistance of the wire and the calculation shows that when the bridge is balanced the electromotive force rl is proportional to the electromotive force at the boundaries of R . The measurements were made in the following manner: 1. The wire is placed in the tunnel and subjected to the air stream, with i = and r' =0. One then adjusts Ro so as to balance the bridge. A galvanometer (not represented in the figure) is used for that purpose . 2. In modulating the current, with i of the order of 3 percent of I, and at a low frequency, one adjusts R and C in such a manner as to balance the bridge for alternating current . The values of R and C as well as the frequency are noted. 3. The same procedure is followed with increasing frequencies f, up to about 10,000 periods. NACA TM 1223 5 The product 2jtfR'C gives the tangent of the angle of phase displacement betveen the alternating current traversing the wire and the variation of its resistance. This phase displacement amounts to il-5° for a certain value fi^.'^o of "the frequency which we compare (a) with the theoretical value f for the linear and infinite wires (51)^ (b) with the value f ' of our nonlinear theory, and (c) with the value given by Dryden Dryden 2it mc R - Rq ^'^' deduced from equation (51) hy replacing A by RI^/('r - Rq) . We have here the general relation o) = 23tf . In order to calculate these theoretical values, one must know the constant oSp _ l6ap Jt2d^c5 ST - 3S- (80) It can be seen that an error of 5 percent concerning the diameter of the wire results in an error of 20 percent concerning that constant; thus it is preferable to determine it empirically. The calculation of that constant gave us, in the case of the wire No. 8, values that were too low; we multiplied it arbitrarily by a factor 1.26, so as to make theory and experience coincide if the temperature of the wire is low. Figure 7 indicates the measured quantities fl^.50 as functions of the ratio R/Rq, as well as the calculated curves. One can see that the empirical results are intermediate between f and ^Dryden' "^^ order to explain this, one must take into account the variation with the temperature, the specific heat of the metal, the product ap, and the density. With the aid of the International Critical Tables, we estimated that the constant (xp/mc diminishes according to the approximate formula m^-m)J^- hD a 0) 1 — 1 — !-i «H ra (D cd -i_> M •i-H K! 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