Year : 2017
Mentors : Vikas Lakhera, Sanjay Jain, Madhusudan Achari, Tejas Raval, Kunal Ghosh
Students involved : Dhairya Raval R. (15MMET23), Karan Shah (14BME103), Yash Parashar (14BME133)
Project : Link
Abstract: Wind tunnel is the equipment which allows the study of the effects of air flowing past the object. To know the aerodynamics involved in aircrafts or any moving object with considerable velocity in air wind tunnel is helpful. In this project, low speed wind tunnel was designed and indigenously developed. The main components of wind tunnel are settling chamber, contraction cone, test section, diffuser section, transition section and centrifugal fan. The centrifugal fan is provided with variable frequency drive (VFD) to operate at different speeds. The test section has cross section area of 10” x 15” (H x W). In the test section, model can be kept for the fluid flow analysis. The test section was calibrated with pitot-tube with micro-manometer at various speeds. The measurement of aerodynamic forces (lift and drag), pitching moment etc. will be measured using three-component strain gauge. In order to visualize the flow around the bluff bodies to understand the flow physics around it, there is a need for the flow visualization technique. In this study, the design and development of smoke generator is carried out on the principle of Preston Sweeting Mist Generator. The smoke is supplied to the wind tunnel through a smoke rake consisted of an airfoil shaped smoke reservoir and outlet pipes. The smoke rake is fixed at the sudden contraction section of the wind tunnel. The air flow around the smoke rake is maintained around 3 m/s using VFD installed in the wind tunnel, so that smoke can be easily carried through without any disturbances.