Wind Tunnels
The division has access to four low speed wind tunnels for aerodynamics and fluid mechanics research and teaching. A 1m x 1m wind tunnel is used for flow visualisation and runs at up to 2 m/s. There is a 1.05 m x 0.85m closed return tunnel that runs at up to 30 m/s, a 5' x 7' closed return tunnel that runs at up to 55 m/s and a 9' x 7' closed return tunnel that runs at up to 75m/s. The 9' x 7' tunnel is equipped with a rolling road. These facilities are equipped with various load cells for load measurement, and may be fitted with test rigs for unsteady aerodynamics experiments. They are supported by instrumentation for unsteady surface pressure measurement, flow visualisation, hot wire velocimetry and two- and three-component PIV. Various continuous and pulsed lasers are available, with digital video camera systems for high speed and high resolution photography.