Design and Analysis of an Open Circuit Subsonic Wind Tunnel.

Wind tunnel is an instrument having wide application in aerodynamics field. It is used to study the effect of airflow around test objects. The present work deals with the design of an academic open circuit subsonic wind tunnel using J. B. Barlow’s method. The diffuser and settling chamber geometry are obtained using standard formulae. The contraction cone profile which is very crucial in ensuring uniform flow with negligible losses and boundary layer growth is obtained using MATLAB. The modeling is done using SOLIDWORKS and the geometry is analyzed for flow velocity and static pressure using ANSYS FLUENT. Analysis is performed for three contraction cone profiles and second order polynomial profile is found to be the most appropriate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]