Can A Cup Anemometer `Underspeed'?

An analysis of cup-anemometer dynamics has been carried out inorder to determine whether the mean-wind velocity can have anegative bias. This would be contrary to the general belief thatcup anemometers always overspeed. Compared to prior analyses, theeffect of a possible nonlinearity of the calibration function isincluded. The conclusion is that neither longitudinal nor lateralvelocity fluctuations can contribute significantly to a negativebias. However, if a cup anemometer has an angular response thatfalls below the ideal cosine response, there will, as demonstratedin the concluding discussion, be a negative contribution from thevertical velocity fluctuations to the total bias, and thiscontribution may even outbalance the positive contributions fromthe longitudinal velocity fluctuations. Concrete evidence of suchexotic cup anemometer behaviour has not been reported in theliterature.