Low Speed Wind-Tunnel Calebration

Wind tunnels are used extensively in the aerospace industry and in this lab the group begin to explore fundamental calculations needed to understand them. Specifically, this lab outlines the procedures necessary to calibrate an open return Low-Speed Wind Tunnel. Two experiments were conducted to gain more knowledge on the airspeed flow through the test section. In the first experiment the goals was to find a correlation between the voltage input and velocity output. This was done by measuring velocity outputs from venturi tube and pitot-static configurations, and with manometer and pressure transducer while applying the equations derived in class. This experiment was repeated at different speeds by using different voltages and because data was recorded in different ways the group analyzed the errors and made a realistic model for future reference. In the second experiment the control voltage was kept constant while varying the height of a pitot tube over certain ports located at the bottom of the tunnel. With boundary layer heights calculated that spanned about 10 in of the test section, the group was able to generate a basic graph for the boundary layer over the entire test section and explore some of its effects.