Temperature Effects on the Wind Direction Measurement of 2D Solid Thermal Wind Sensors

For a two-dimensional solid silicon thermal wind sensor with symmetrical structure, the wind speed and direction information can be derived from the output voltages in two orthogonal directions, i.e., the north-south and east-west. However, the output voltages in these two directions will vary linearly with the ambient temperature. Therefore, in this paper, a temperature model to study the temperature effect on the wind direction measurement has been developed. A theoretical analysis has been presented first, and then Finite Element Method (FEM) simulations have been performed. It is found that due to symmetrical structure of the thermal wind sensor, the temperature effects on the output signals in the north-south and east-west directions are highly similar. As a result, the wind direction measurement of the thermal wind sensor is approximately independent of the ambient temperature. The experimental results fit the theoretical analysis and simulation results very well.