Silicon Based Sensors for the Measurement of Turbulence and Wall-Pressure Fluctuations in a Two-Dimensional Flat Plate Boundary Layer

Small and sensitive silicon based sensors for the measurement of turbulence and wall-pressure fluctuations have been designed and fabricated using microelectronic technology. To determine the performance of these sensors, comparisons with conventional hot-wires and microphones were carried out in a well-defined two-dimensional turbulent flat plate boundary layer. The velocity sensors were found to have a spatial and frequency resolution that makes them suitable for turbulence measurements. For the pressure transducers the same good resolution was found, and from the power spectrum, determined directly with a small silicon sensor, a slope in the inertial sub-layer in agreement with the 5/3-law of Kolmogorov was found