PITOT TUBE

Named

after Henri Pitot who used a bent

glass tube to measure velocities in a
river in France in 1732.
a pressure measurement instrument
used to measure fluid flow velocity not
only in open channels (such as canals
and rivers), but in closed conduits as
well.

PITOT TUBE
Is

used to measure the local velocity at

a given point in the flow stream and not
the average velocity in the pipe or
conduit.
An error of less than 1 percent is
possible with a pitot tube for a wide
range of Reynolds numbers.

Fig. 1 A simple pitot tube for

measuring stagnation pressure

A right angled glass

tube, large enough for
capillary effects to be
negligible.
One end of the tube
faces the flow while the
other end is open to the
atmosphere as shown.
The liquid flows up the
tube
and
when
equilibrium is attained,
the liquid reaches a
height above the free
surface of the water
stream.

Since the static pressure, under this

situation, is equal to the hydrostatic pressure due
to its depth below the free surface, the difference
in level between the liquid in the glass tube and
the free surface becomes the measure of
dynamic pressure. Therefore, we can write,
neglecting friction,

where p0, p and V are the stagnation pressure,

static pressure and velocity respectively at point
A (Fig. 1).

 For

an open stream of liquid with a free

surface, the simple pitot tube is
sufficient to determine the velocity. But
for a fluid flowing through a closed duct,
the Pitot tube measures only the
stagnation pressure and so the static
pressure must be measured separately.

Fig. 2 Static and stagnation tubes

together

Measurement
of
static
pressure in this case is
made at the boundary of
the wall as shown in the
figure.
The axis of the tube
measuring
the
static
pressure
must
be
perpendicular
to
the
boundary and free from
burrs, so that the boundary
is smooth and hence the
streamlines adjacent to it
are not curved. This is done
to sense the static pressure
only without any part of the
dynamic pressure.

Pitot tube is also inserted as shown in

Fig. 2 to sense the stagnation pressure.
The ends of the Pitot tube, measuring the
stagnation pressure, and the piezometric
tube, measuring the static pressure, may
be connected to a suitable differential
manometer for the determination of flow
velocity and hence the flow rate.

Cross-section of a Typical Pitot Static

Tube

The pitot tube measures a

fluid velocity by converting
the kinetic energy of the
flow into potential energy.
The conversion takes place
at the stagnation point,
located at the Pitot tube
entrance).
A pressure higher than the
free-stream (i.e. dynamic)
pressure results from the
kinematic
to
potential
conversion. This "static"
pressure is measured by
comparing it to the flow's
dynamic pressure with a
differential manometer.

Disadvantages of a Pitot Tube

Most

designs do not give the average

velocity directly
Its readings for gases are extremely
small. When it is used for measuring
low-pressure gases, some form of
multiplying gauge must also be used.

Applications
It

is widely used to determine the airspeed

of an aircraft, water speed of a boat, and to
measure liquid, air and gas velocities in
industrial applications.
In industry, the velocities being measured
are often those flowing in ducts and tubing
where
measurements
by
ananemometerwould be difficult to obtain.
In these kinds of measurements, the most
practical instrument to use is the pitot tube.