Pitot pressure is the pressure that is measured by a
Pitot tube
A pitot ( ) tube (pitot probe) measures fluid flow velocity. It was invented by a French engineer, Henri Pitot, in the early 18th century, and was modified to its modern form in the mid-19th century by a French scientist, Henry Darcy. It is ...
, an open-ended tube connected to a pressure-measuring device. For subsonic flow, pitot pressure is equal to the
stagnation pressure
In fluid dynamics, stagnation pressure is the static pressure at a stagnation point in a fluid flow.Clancy, L.J., ''Aerodynamics'', Section 3.5 At a stagnation point the fluid velocity is zero. In an incompressible flow, stagnation pressure is equ ...
(or total pressure) of the flow, and hence the term pitot pressure is often used interchangeably with these other terms. For supersonic flow, however, pitot pressure is the stagnation pressure of the flow behind the normal shock ahead of the pitot tube. Pitot pressure is named for
Henri Pitot
Henri Pitot (; May 3, 1695 – December 27, 1771) was a French hydraulic engineer and the inventor of the pitot tube.
In a pitot tube, the height of the fluid column is proportional to the square of the velocity of the fluid at the depth of the ...
, French scientist.
References
Pressure
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