Wind Tunnels
Aeronautical and Non-aeronautical
applications
Aerospace Uses of Wind Tunnels
• Airplane Development (Commercial/Military)
– Component Testing
– Complete airplane Experiments
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Take-off and Landing Configurations
Ground effect
Cruise Configuration
Power effects on areodynamics
– Data Required
• Force and moment coefficients
• Detailed pressure disdribution data for structural design
Aerospace Uses of Wind Tunnels
• Airplane Development (Commercial/Military)
– Specialized testing requirements
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Spin Characteristics
Aeroelastic experiments
External store separation
Jettison experiments
Drag chute
• Space vehicles
– Ground loads due to wind
– Ascent loads
– Re-entry loads
Non Aerospace Uses of Wind
Tunnels
• Ground Vehicles
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Automobiles
Race Cars
Trucks, motorcycles, etc
Trains
• Marine Vehicles
– Sailboats
– Underwater vehicles
– Surface Ships
Non Aerospace Uses of Wind
Tunnels
• Wind Engineering – the study of wind
loading on buildings, structures,and
environmental factors.
– Loads on buildings
– Influence of building wakes on other nearby
buildings
– Loads on Towers
– Loads on Bridges
Non Aerospace Uses of Wind
Tunnels
• Wind Engineering – the study of wind
loading on buildings, structures,and
environmental factors.
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Pollution
Bio-terrorism
Accidental hazardous gas or liquid spills
Used for evauation planning
Store Separation
• Store separation deals with the safety issues of
separating an internal or external store from an
airplane.
– Stores could be auxillary fuel tanks
– Weapons
– Other flight vehicles
• How would you verify that a safe separation is
possible using a wind tunnel?
Boeing 747/Shuttle
Captive Trajectory Simulation
Drop Model Test
Other Wind Tunnel Uses
Race Car Design
Planetary Mobile Vehicles
High Altitude Airships
Indy Race Car
Race Car
Planetary Exploration Project
• Suppose you were asked to develop a low
cost device to move a senor package around
the surface of the planet Mars.
– Sensor package
• Seismic monitoring equipment
• Water detection equipment
• Weather sensing equipment, etc
• What kind of device might be suitable?
High Altitude Airship