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I propose a new method to measure velocity of a gas flow, which utilizes the time derivative of the voltage observed on a vibrating hot-wire sensor. The wire vibrates with an amplitude a and a frequency f, and is kept perpendicular to the gas flow direction in the plane containing the flow velocity vector v(g). When the parameters of vibrations are tuned, the number of zeros per vibration period of the hot-wire voltage function changes. I demonstrate that at the point of change, the unknown gas velocity is directly expressed by the parameters of vibrations v(g)=2pifa. Therefore, the velocity can be measured without any prior calibration of the hot-wire speed-voltage curve and the method can be used for gases of slowly changing temperature or composition.

The article presents a single-hot-wire probe adapted to detect the direction of flow velocity. The modification consists of the introduction of a third support which allows to measure voltage at the central point of the wire. The sign of voltage difference DeltaU between both parts of the wire is the measure of the direction of flow velocity in a system of coordinates associated with the probe.