Open low speed wind tunnel - Design and testing

Abstract

This paper presents the design method and the construction details of a subsonic low-speed wind tunnel, which has been designed to achieve the flow velocity of 35 m/s in the measurement section with expected uniform velocity field at its inlet. To achieve such objectives a very detailed design was performed using a theoretical 1D analysis and computational fluid dynamics simulations. This approach was applied to improve the flow quality along the wind tunnel sections. When the wind tunnel has been launched a direct comparison of the experimentally measured flow field in the test section and numerical simulation results was conducted. Such comparison of the simulation results with the experimental one is presented in this paper. The obtained results confirm that assumed wind tunnel design method was correct, i.e. the pressure drop in the wind tunnel has been predicted very well and drive system is effective and sufficient to accelerate the airflow to required values.