Numerical Model of Flexible Anemometer Using Bended Inductor

A numerical model of a flexible wind speed sensor was established in this article. The model that inductance varies with wind speed is obtained by dividing the cantilever beam into several segments. The flexible wind speed sensors with single-layer inductor and dual-layer inductors have been fabricated and tested in the wind tunnel. The measuring dynamic range is about 0–11.2 m/s. The sensitivity for the devices with single-layer and dual-layer inductors is about 0.403 and 1.681 nH/(m/s), respectively. The measured results demonstrate an agreement with the numerical model under the low wind speed. When the wind speed is less than 8 m/s, the maximum absolute error of single-layer and dual-layer inductors is 0.41 and 2.02 nH at 6.4 m/s, respectively. However, when the wind speed is greater than 8 m/s, the measured results are smaller than the calculation because the bended inductors may tend to be saturated.