What are Wind Tunnels?
Wind tunnels are research tools developed to assist with studying the effects of air moving over or around solid objects. The air is blown or sucked through a specialized duct. A viewing port and instrumentation are included in the duct, to which geometric shapes or models can be mounted in order to be studied. The airflow and geometry observed within wind tunnels is generally compared to theoretical results in order to test their accuracy. This study requires taking into account the Reynolds number, which is the ratio of inertial forces to viscous forces, and the Mach number, which is the the ratio of speed of an object or flow relative to the speed of sound in the medium through which it travels. Threads are sometimes attached to the object surface in wind tunnels in order to learn more about flow direction and the speed of the air flow in a specific air flow situation. In this situation, dye is injected into the airstream created in wind tunnels, and the particles that result are ph
Just as its name suggests, a wind tunnel is a tube or tunnel that has man-made wind blown through it at a certain speed. Scientists and engineers put a model of an airplane in the tunnel and then study the way air moves around the model. By looking at the way this smaller model acts in the wind tunnel, they get a pretty good idea of how a real life-sized airplane of the same design will probably fly. It is a lot easier, cheaper, and safer to build and test a model than to build and fly a real airplane.
Wind Tunnels are used in motorsport to test certain car designs and specifications to find out if they work and how well they work in as near to a real situation as possible. A smaller model of the teams real car is made and placed inside the tunnel to see how well it withstands the testing conditions. The wind tunnel is a tube, round or rectangular. It is equipped with a fan so that air can be driven through the tube at a constant and controlled speed. Once the model is in place a stream of air is sent through the tunnel Downforce and drag results at particular speeds can then be measured . Wind tunnels are often designed so that the air flowing past the model is reused. These tunnels, ‘re-circulating tunnels’ save power as the air does not have to be accelerated to working speed continuously, but are more complex and expensive to build.
