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kinetic energy of the flow into potential energy. The conversion takes place at the stagnation
point, located at the Pitot tube entrance (see the schematic below). 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.
Incompressible Flow
A flow can be considered incompressible if its velocity is less than 30% of its sonic velocity. For
such a fluid, the Bernoulli equation describes the relationship between the velocity and pressure
along a streamline,
Evaluated at two different points along a streamline, the Bernoulli equation yields,
If z1 = z2 and point 2 is a stagnation point, i.e., v2 = 0, the above equation reduces to,
or more specifically,
For flow velocities greater than 30% of the sonic velocity, the fluid must be treated as
compressible. In compressible flow theory, one must work with the Mach number M, defined as
the ratio of the flow velocity v to the sonic velocity c,
When a Pitot tube is exposed to a subsonic compressible flow (0.3 < M < 1), fluid traveling
along the streamline that ends on the Pitot tube's stagnation point is continuously compressed.
If we assume that the flow decelerated and compressed from the free-stream state isentropically,
the velocity-pressure relationship for the Pitot tube is,
where is the ratio of specific heat at constant pressure to the specific heat at constant volume,
If the free-stream density static is not available, then one can solve for the Mach number of the
flow instead,
where
is the speed of sound (i.e. sonic velocity), R is the gas
constant, and T is the free-stream static temperature.
Supersonic Compressible Flow
For supersonic flow (M > 1), the streamline terminating at the Pitot tube's stagnation point
crosses the bow shock in front of the Pitot tube. Fluid traveling along this streamline is first
decelerated nonisentropically to a subsonic speed and then decelerated isentropically to zero
velocity at the stagnation point.
Note that this formula is valid only for Reynolds numbers R > 400 (using the probe diameter as
the characteristic length). Below that limit, the isentropic assumption breaks down.