Evaluation of measurement uncertainty for handheld differential pressure anemometer

Abstract

This study aims to evaluate the uncertainty of calibration results of the handheld differential pressure anemometer (HDPA) to guarantee its measurement accuracy and reliability. In this study, an HDPA was calibrated to acquire experimental data, and GUM (Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement) and MCM (Monte Carlo Method, including single-run MCM and adaptive MCM(AMCM)) were employed to evaluate its uncertainty. The high accuracy of MCM was utilized as a benchmark to verify the applicability of the GUM method in this domain. Comparative analysis results indicated that the GUM method failed to meet the requirements in certain situations, particularly when pursuing high accuracy in the scene. The MCM method demonstrated more prominent advantages. Additionally, the evaluation results of single-run MCM and AMCM were highly consistent, but AMCM was significantly superior to the former in terms of evaluation efficiency. This study not only confirmed the applicability of GUM and MCM in the evaluation of calibration uncertainty of HDPA but, more importantly, revealed the limitations of the GUM method for the first time and highlighted the unique advantages of AMCM in improving evaluation efficiency and accuracy. Therefore, new insights and practical suggestions are provided for the field of high-precision measurement of HDPA; namely, the more efficient AMCM method should be given priority in uncertainty evaluation.