AUTOMATED DATA ACQUISITION SYSTEM FOR EXPERIMENTS ON FULLY-DEVELOPED PIPE FLOW.

Experiments on fully developed pipe flow which can be used in an undergraduate fluid mechanics course are outlined. The requirements for data acquisition are specified and the philosophy for automating the experiment is discussed. The design and set up of the system is described with particular reference to the hardware and software used. Briefly, the system consists of a microcomputer which monitors the experimental conditions, automatically positions the probes for measurements, and supervises and schedules the process of data acquisition which involves processing of random signals in the frequency domain using analogue computers. The logic used in the control of this type of experiment is described.