DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF PROBE TRAVERSE MECHANISM

This report describes the design and development of an automated probe traverse mechanism to be used in future fluids research. This instrument was designed to collect low speed airflow measurements from a probe over a range of pitch, yaw and roll angles, with pressure, mass flow rate and velocity probes. The report consists of the design and development of the various mechanical and electronic components to construct an instrument which manipulates the probe in a 2-d plane. Based on the study of various probe traverse mechanisms and the consideration of the future experiments to be conducted, the basic manipulation requirements for the probe were found out. On the basis of the manipulation requirements, and the worst (design conditions) experimental conditions the components of the instruments are been selected and designed. The robustness, accuracy and the strength were the primary design criteria for the design of the manipulation (traverse) mechanism. As the mechanism is to be controlled autonomously during the experimentation the electronic components are to be selected such that they provide highly repeatable and accurately reliable results. After the design and manufacturing of the whole setup including the calibrating tunnel, the probe is to be manipulated in certain fixed criteria, for that peculiar motion planning the control algorithms are been developed . Also to provide extra freedom to the experimenter the manual mode is also been provided in which the operator can manually manipulate the probe using the electronic knobs provided. In the future scope of the stated setup the CTHP (cylindrical three hole probe) and the various probes are to be manufactured and to be calibrated using this setup to test and verify the outcome of the setup