Fluid velocity measurement using convective heat transfer coefficient measuring system

A system, built for measurement of convective heat transfer coefficient, h, was adapted and used to measure the h value and the fluid velocity simultaneously in various flow rates using tap water. The system is composed of a Wheatstone-bridge circuit which one arm is connected to a steerable catheter sensor whose tip is a thin film resistive temperature detector (RTD) sensor. The results presented a practical relationship between the local fluid velocity and the h value, which differs from what theory suggests. Further experiments using various flow rates of blood are needed in order to get the correlation between the h value and the local blood velocity for the estimation of the in vivo h value in any large blood vessel using the local blood velocity.