VORTEX ANEMOMETER FOR MEASUREMENT OF BOTH SPEED AND DIRECTION OF THE WIND

This paper relates to wind motion sensors and, in particular, to appar atus for measuring wind speed and direction, using the vortex shedding phenomenon. Anemometers for meteorological use are usually of the rot ating cup type. These suffer from the disadvantage of having continuou sly moving parts which can wear and which make it difficult to produce a device that is sufficiently sensitive to respond to very gentle bre ezes and yet sufficiently robust to withstand gale-force winds. Wind d irection sensors also have moving parts and thus involve the same prob lems. Furthermore, both types of sensor are prone to jamming as a resu lt of water penetrating their bearings and freezing in cold weather. A ll these problems can be avoided with a vortex shedding anemometer. Th is paper presents the principle and description of the new, entirely s tatic device for measurement of both speed and direction of the wind.