Influence of Aerodynamic Housing on the Performance of MEMS Wind Sensor

In this paper, the effects of the packaged housing with various parameters on the wind speed measurement was investigated, aiming to the find out the influence of different shape of packaged housing on the performance of MEMS wind sensor under different conditions of wind velocity. These parameters include pillar diameter, pillar height, number of pillars and the position of sensor. After that, a novel curve-shaped top cover for the protecting housing is presented to reduce the wind speed to the sensor in order to extend the measuring dynamic range. In the simulation, the 3D packaged sensor model was tested by using finite element method (FEM) software COMSOL in CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) module. The measured results demonstrate that with the increase of numbers, diameter and height of pillars, there is a rapid decline in simulated wind speed, and for a fixed pillar height, the sensor suffers from the largest wind speed when it is placed in the center position compared to other heights. In addition, the curved-shape roof can reduce the wind speed across the sensor effectively.