Artwork: The way a typical wind tunnel looks from above.

As long as the ears don’t blow away, when you stick your head in the wind tunnel, these are the things you can see:

• Drive Motors – These are the huge electric motors that spin the fan.

• Compressor: This is the fan/fans that generate high speed wind.

• High Speed ​​Supersonic Test Section – This is where the model aircraft is placed.

• Vanes – These airfoils are located at the edges to allow air to rotate 90 degrees without loss of energy.

• Acoustic Muffler: Mufflers reduce noise produced by wind tunnels and accurately cause realistic airflow.

• Low Velocity Subsonic Test Section – This is a small test chamber on the other side where there is slower air movement.

• Access Gates: Scientists use these to enter.

• Air Dryer – This is the section that removes moisture from the airflow.

air flow measurement

Since you can’t see the air, how do you know if a plane is working well or not inside the tunnel? Its performance can be determined through three main ways. First, a smoke gun is used to make the color of the airstream white, then the smoke is observed as it changes and swirls as it passes the plane.

Second, they can take a so-called Schlieren photograph, which allows variations in air pressure, as well as velocity, to appear and become visible.

Last but not least, they can make use of anemometers (instruments that measure air speed) to measure how fast the wind is moving as it travels at various points around the plane.

Armed with these measurements and several complex aerodynamic formulas, they will be able to determine how well an aircraft is performing and whether it will actually keep flying in the sky.

When they are satisfied with their performance, they can develop a prototype (test model) and do a real test or let someone else test it. Test pilots earn a lot of money as their job is prone to risk. However, they love their job and just fasten their seatbelts with confidence, knowing that the plane they are going to test has been tested in a wind tunnel.

static tests

Wind tunnels are well known for testing new airplanes and rockets, vehicles that move rapidly through a static air stream. However, they can be used in the opposite way: to mimic the way high winds impact static structures, including bridges and high-rise buildings.

Architects and structural engineers have to think not only about the loads imposed by high winds on their designs (if buildings could collapse), but also about how skyscrapers and other structures catch the wind and then bounce it back. at ground level to create “below”. potentially damaging air currents and vortices that have the ability to blow people away. Such problems are easy to study and correct with the use of realistic models in wind tunnels.