An Arduino microcontroller based digitalization of a vertical traversing mechanism used for the analysis of jet flows

This paper deals with the design of a drive system of traversing mechanism used to position the pitot tube in desired position of the jet flow field. In this system a stepper motor is driven by a ‘dual H bridge’ motor driver and programmed Arduino microcontroller. The stepper motor is made to move in precise steps to obtain desired movement of the traversing mechanism. The jet flow is characterized in three distinct zones – initial zone, transition zone and developed zone. Each zone can be divided into required number of segments based on variation of velocity. By assigning number of segments, step range and number of steps in each segment as inputs, it is possible to collect data in all the flow zones according to our programmed schedule. The system will allow taking a large number of readings automatically.