An instrument for measuring turbulent pressure fluctuations

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
An instrument is described for laboratory measurements of the fluctuating static pressure in the turbulent boundary layer above progressive water waves. It consists of a disk-shaped sensing head properly designed to minimize the dynamic pressure variation to an acceptable level, a commercially available piezocrystal transducer housed inside a casing, and a forward-bent connecting tube. Pressure fluctuations sampled by the disk are converted into an electrical signal by the piezocrystal transducer. Through low-pass filtering, only the frequency range of interest is retained. The instrument was tested successfully for frequency response, dynamic and mechanical noise sensitivity, and response to spurious pressure fluctuations (produced when operating in a Eulerian wave-following mode) inside a cylindrical chamber and in a wind–wave facility, and some sample results along with the calibration procedures and data analysis are presented.