A master’s thesis by the student Redha Muhammad Ali Abbas was discussed in the College of Engineering, University of Basra, Department of Mechanical Engineering, entitled Design, construction, and testing of a low-speed wind tunnel.
A subsonic closed loop wind tunnel was designed, simulated and constructed in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Engineering College - Basra University. The wind tunnel is used in the field of aerodynamics, where it tests aircraft, vehicles, wind turbines, evaluates architectural designs, sports equipment, and other tests. The work is one of the pioneer projects aiming to facilitate studding the aerodynamic field in the university. As it is believed by author, a closed loop wind tunnel has not been yet constructed in any university in Iraq. Therefore, the constructed wind tunnel will participate to boost the research in the related field and provide an experimental mean to do some validation and simulation work with confidence.
The current thesis explains the construction, simulation, and design calculations. The test section of the proposed wind tunnel is 1.25 meters long and has a cross sectional area of (0.6 by 0.6) meters. About (30.4 m/s) is the maximum speed in the empty test section. The ratio of contraction is (8.16). To reduce downstream flow disturbances, six splitting plates are used. The flow conditions in upstream sections had a greater impact on test section flow quality than in downstream sections, according to an analysis of the guide vane configurations. This made it possible to optimize the flow quality throughout the circuit, not just in the test section. The design philosophy is explained, and wind tunnel calculation techniques are delineated. An ANSYS wind tunnel simulation reveals no flow separation along the wind tunnel. The current work also includes construction steps.