Simulation and fabrication of a 2D-flow sensor for simultaneous fluid characterization

AbstractAn enhanced flow sensor is under development at IMTEK to enable simultaneous fluid characterization and flow velocity measurement. Simultaneous measurement of fluid thermal properties is necessary to measure flow rates accurately by thermal means in cases where fluid properties fluctuate in time. Here, we report the design and the fabrication of our 2D flow sensor consisting of one heater and five thermistors and present the influence of specific heat capacity of fluids on the measurement signals through FEM simulations. The results show that phase shift depends less on specific heat capacity (cP) than the thermal conductivity (λ)