Development of a velocity pressure probe

Abstract

In intermediate and large scale fire test applications, a bi-directional low-velocity pressure probe is used to obtain the volume flow. The probe was presented by McCaffrey and Heskestad in 1976 and has found its way to several international standards including the Room Corner test and the Single Burning Item test (SBI). The probe is considered ‘state of the art’ for measuring flow rate in fire test applications. The main disadvantage however is that the probe factor changes with pitch and/or yaw angle variations. The modified SBI pressure probe is less sensitive to angular variations but then again is Reynolds dependent. A new pressure probe design has been developed that combines a low angular sensitivity with a Reynolds independency over a wide range. Although the probe has been developed for intermediate and large scale fire test applications, its use is not limited thereto. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.