Process Description: How an aeronautical wind

tunnel works
Wonsik Nam
English 202C
3/26/2015

Audience and Scope of Description

The purpose of this document is to provide the reader with an understanding of how
an aeronautical wind tunnel functions. An aeronautical wind tunnel is essentially a
tool used for experiments in order to do aerodynamic research for the certain
effects of air moving over a solid object. This document will focus on the purpose of
a wind tunnel as well as the specific functions of each part of the aeronautical wind
tunnel. After reading this technical document, the audience will have the knowledge
of key components regarding the aeronautical wind tunnel, the role of these key
components and how these components correlate with each other.
The specific audience for this technical document is for aerospace engineering
students going into their junior year in college. The information regarding the
aeronautical wind tunnel could appear in any introduction to aeronautics or
aerodynamics textbook. However, this technical document helps the students gain
knowledge that is clear and precise, as it essentially explains thorough concepts
regarding the aeronautical wind tunnels. The specifics in this technical document
would not be available in those textbooks, or even in introduction to aerospace
engineering classes. Moreover, for aerospace students wanting to specialize in
aerodynamics or aeronautics, this technical document will help them have an indepth understanding of how the aeronautical wind tunnel functionsan apparatus
that is virtually always used for experiments in their field of expertise. Figure 1
below shows the aeronautical wind tunnel Penn State has for its research
department.

Figure 1. An image of Penn State Universitys aeronautical wind tunnel

Introduction to Process
Aeronautical wind tunnels can usually be found at research facilities such as
Universities or big companies that experiment on building any time of aircrafts.
These wind tunnels essentially move air around the airplane to make the conditions
seem like the airplane is actually flying. One main reason to utilize these
aeronautical wind tunnels is for learning more about airplanes and how they move
in certain circumstances in the air. The wind tunnel apparatus essentially helps the
customer test ideas for way of making the aircraft fly safer and better. Next, the
aeronautical wind tunnel has multiple key components to it, which can be seen in
Figure 2 below.

Figure 2. A diagram of the components to an aeronautical wind tunnel

In order to fully understand all the functions to the aeronautical wind tunnel, each
key component will be examined starting from the front section of the apparatus to
the back section of the apparatus.
How an aeronautical wind tunnels works
1. Honeycomb screens
The honeycomb helps reduce the lateral components of the mean velocity
and the large turbulent eddies of its own, which helps the air decay slowly.
However, when using only honeycomb and no screens, this leads to very high
turbulent intensities in the test section, which essentially causes the
experiment to be inaccurate. Thus, adding screens would help reduce the
longitudinal components of turbulence and mean velocity. In most modern
day wind tunnels, the honeycomb screens are used to control the air flow,
and in turn help collect accurate data. Figure 3 below shows an example of
what a honeycomb screen looks like.

Figure 3. Image of a honeycomb screen attached to a wind tunnel

2. Test Section
The test section inside the wind tunnel is always dependent on the specific
cross-sectional dimensions of the testing model. The most used test section
has a rectangle shape of

to 1 ratio. If there are larger aircrafts to be

tested, then the test section usually has a larger dimension in the horizontal
direction for convenience when measuring the pressure and other forces
affecting the airflow of the test section. Furthermore, the reason the test
section has the thinnest cross section compared to the other components of
the wind tunnel is due to the imperative nature of the test section. While
other components of the wind tunnel have some significance to them, the
test section is the most important when trying to acquire accurate data of the
given test model. The thin nature of the test section helps to minimize the
flow disturbances propagating upstream as it surrounds the airplane model,
and to provide highly accurate Mach number control during the wind tunnel
operation, which essentially shows how the airplane would react to the
airflow conditions at a certain Mach number. Figure 4 below shows an
example of a test section used by NASA.

Figure 4. Image of a test section used by NASA

3. Diffuser
After the air passes through the thin cross section of the test section, it then
moves along to the diffuser, which has a gradually-expanding passage. The
main purpose of this passage is to help decrease the flow speed and also help
the pressure rise. The pressure rise from the increase kinetic energy also
helps reduce the power needed to drive the air in the wind tunnel. Looking at
Bernoullis equation, losses of skin friction and increase in boundary layer
growth ultimately makes the pressure inside the wind tunnel rise. Figure 5
below shows the equations involved for Bernoullis Equation as well as the
certain restrictions to it.

Figure 5. Image of Bernoullis equation

4. Fan
The fan is towards the end of the wind tunnel. Almost all fans are mounted
downstream of the wind tunnel where the cross section of the wind tunnel is
about two or three times the test section cross section. Its main purpose is to
produce a rise in static pressure in order to compensate for the loss in the
total pressure in sections leading up to the fan section. Also, the cross section
area is supposed to be larger than that of the test section cross section area
in order to reduce the tip speed of the airflow coming from the fan, which in
turn leads to less noise and vibration frequencies. Another trivial aspect of
placing the fan at the end of the wind tunnel is to help little objects blown out
of the test section to be caught or fragmented by the corner vanes prior to
the fan blades.
Conclusion
The entire process of the aeronautical wind tunnel can be broken down into simple
steps. After preparing the wind tunnel with all its components, and all the
instruments and sensors that report back to the computers for data, the test is
ready to commence. There should usually be a switch that starts the airflow inside
the wind tunnel. After turning that switch on, the data starts to collect. Once again,
the wind tunnel works as an apparatus that has air moving around the test model,
applying turbulence and air pressure to the test model as it essentially models a
real life machine moving through stationary air. Thus, scientists, engineers and
technicians collect data for a certain period of time in order to fully understand how
the test model is performing through stationary air.
All in all, each component in the aeronautical wind tunnel helps gather accurate
data of the test model being experimented on inside the wind tunnel. These real life
conditions being applied to the test model will help engineers and project managers
evaluate whether or not the test model was a successful build or a failure. Overall,
there are all kinds of wind tunnels throughout the world. These wind tunnels are
essential for CFD (computational fluid dynamic) modeling, which is an essential
modeling technique for aerodynamic engineers trying to decide whether the test
model can withstand certain air conditions, which include the pressures, forces and
air flow directions.

Works Cited
Figure 1:
http://personal.psu.edu/kus3/mattprofile.jpg
Figure 2:
"Aeronautical Wind Tunnel Specifications and Schematics." Aerodynamics Research Group. UC
Davis University, n.d. Web. 26 Mar. 2015.

http://flight.engr.ucdavis.edu/facilities/aeronautical-wind-tunnel/
Figure 3:
http://www.slowtwitch.com/articles/images/9/51079-largest_01_Honeycomb.jpg
Figure 4:
http://spark.ieee.org/files/2013/05/wind-tunnel-test.jpg
Figure 5:
http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/k-12/airplane/Images/bern.gif
Content:
http://navier.stanford.edu/bradshaw/tunnel/index.html
http://tryengineering.org/lessons/windtunnels.pdf