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Design and simulation of Open Circuit Blowdown type Wind Tunnel

Conference Paper · December 2012

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 International Congress on Computational Mechanics and Simulation (ICCMS)
IIT Hyderabad, 10-12 December 2012

Design and simulation of Open Circuit Blowdown type Wind Tunnel

Sanjeev Kumar Guptaa, V.K.Dwivedib, Jitendra Kumar Chauhanc, and Rahul Goswami c
aAssistantProfessor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, GLA University, Mathura, U. P. India, 281406.
bAssociateProfessor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, GLA University, Mathura, UP, India, 281406
cStudent, Department of Mechanical Engineering, GLA University, Mathura, U. P. India, 281406.

Email: sanjeev.mnnita@gmail.com, vijjay_mirz@yahoo.com, rrg18070@gmail.com

Abstract
Wind tunnel is an aerodynamic test facility. It is mostly used to study flow patterns around bodies and
measure aerodynamic forces on them. In the present paper an open circuit blow down type wind tunnel
has been designed using standard design rules given by R. D. Mehta for Fluid Mechanics Laboratory,
Department of Mechanical Engineering, GLA University, Mathura, India. The speed in test section is 40
m/s and static pressure drop is 30mm of water column. The design has been validated using commercial
CFD code FLUENT 6.3.
Keywords: Aerodynamics, Wind Tunnel, Contraction wall, Turbulence, Diffuser etc.

1. Introduction

Wind tunnel is an aerodynamic test facility. It is mostly used to study flow patterns around bodies and
measure aerodynamic forces on them. The bodies (called models) are usually scaled down but
geometrically similar versions of bodies of interest like an airplane or an automobile. The results from wind
tunnel tests can be ‘scaled’ to the actual velocity and actual body size using suitable scaling laws. A typical
wind tunnel consists of a test section in which the model is kept, a contraction section and settling section
before the test section, and a diffuser after the test section. Contractions sections (also known as effuser)
are located between the settling chamber and the test sections and serve to both increase mean velocities
at the test section inlet and moderate inconsistencies in the uniformity of the flow. Large contraction ratios
and short contraction lengths are generally more desirable as they reduce the power loss across the screens
and the thickness of boundary layers. Small tunnels typically have contraction ratios between 6 and 9.
From an engineering perspective, the wind tunnel is a data gathering device for aeronautical design
purposes that has given rise to a great variety of testing facilities (Heinzerling, 1990). The air flow around a
test model in a wind tunnel, however, cannot be compared to full scale motion in free flight without further
assumptions derived from fluid mechanics. The so-called Reynolds number (a dimensionless term involving
pressure, viscosity and a characteristic length) has to be the same in both situations. Pressure and length
enter the Reynolds number as a product, so that, for example, a tenfold reduction of the length leaves the
Reynolds number unchanged if the pressure is increased tenfold. Already such problems of scaling hint at a
fundamental tension between theory and practice embodied in wind tunnels (Bushnell, 2006). But model
testing entailed more problems and thus motivated further air flow studies. Beyond its use in aeronautical
engineering the wind tunnel assumed an epistemic role for the development of basic concepts of twentieth
century fluid dynamics.
Currently, more flexibility in the design of wind tunnel contractions can be exhibited, with the use of CFD to
enable rapid testing of designs to optimize contractions of arbitrary cross-section and wall profile. The use of
CFD allows for the use of higher order polynomials, and non-zero curvature or slope at inlet to the
contraction.
This paper describes the design of open circuit blow down type wind tunnel. The speed in the test section is
40 m/s and static pressure drop is 30 mm of water column. This design is further validated using commercial
CFD code fluent 6.3.
2. Design of Proposed Open Circuit Blow Down Type Wind Tunnel
The proposed wind tunnel is designed using design rules given by R. D. Mehta for design of low speed wind
tunnel. The technical specification of the proposed wind tunnel is given below.
 International Congress on Computational Mechanics and Simulation (ICCMS)
IIT Hyderabad, 10-12 December 2012
2.1 Technical Specification of Proposed Wind Tunnel
Table 1. Technical specification of wind tunnel

Specification Size
Total length of the tunnel 5000 mm
Length of the settling chamber 1500 mm
Cross sectional area of settling chamber 750 x 750 mm2
Length of honeycomb 150 mm
Major and minor diameter of honeycomb 25 mm and 22 mm
Number of honeycomb 1023
Number of screen 6
Length of contraction cone 1000 mm
Contraction ratio 6
Length of wide angle diffuser 1501 mm
Area ratio of diffuser 4.76
Angle of diffuser 2.25
Maximum air velocity in the test section 40 m/s
Maximum discharge through the tunnel 20 m3/s

2.2 Design of Settling Chamber

The settling chamber is constant, square cross sectional chamber located between the fan or wide angle
diffuser and the contraction. It contains the honeycombs and screens used to moderate longitudinal
variations in the flow. Optimum distance between last screen and contraction entry should be 0.2 times of
cross sectional diameters apart so that flow disturbed by the first screen can settle before it encounters the
second.
Honeycombs are the mass of hexagonal tiling located in the settling chamber and are used to reduce non-
uniformities in the flow. For optimum benefit, honeycombs should be 6-8 cell diameters thick and cell size
should be on the order of about 150 cells per settling chamber diameter.

Figure 1. Honeycomb
 International Congress on Computational Mechanics and Simulation (ICCMS)
IIT Hyderabad, 10-12 December 2012

Screens are typically located just downstream of the honeycomb and sometime at the inlet of the test
section. Screens create a static pressure drop and serve to reduce boundary layer size and increase flow
uniformity. A screen is characterized by its open-area ratio, which is defined in the equation below where d is
the wire diameter and L is the length of the screen. At least one screen in the settling chamber (ideally the
last) should have an open-area ratio of β<0.57, as screens with lower ratios are known to produced non-
uniformities in the flow. This is presumable due to the formation of small vortices created by the random
coalescence of tiny jets emitted from the screen. The pressure drop across a screen depends upon the
open-area ratio of the screen and the density, kinematic viscosity, and mean velocity of the fluid. Screens
create static pressure drop and serve to reduce boundary layer size and increases flow uniformity. Optimum
distance between last screen and contraction entry should be 0.2 times of cross sectional diameter.
Distance between two successive screen increases by 25 mm.

Figure 2. Arrangement of Screen in Settling Chamber

2.3 Design of Wide Angle Diffuser

Figure 3. Wide angle Diffuser

 International Congress on Computational Mechanics and Simulation (ICCMS)
IIT Hyderabad, 10-12 December 2012

Diffusers are chambers that slowly expand along their length, allowing fluid pressure to increase and
decreasing fluid velocity. Angles slightly larger than 5 degrees do increase pressure recovery, but can also
lead to boundary layer separation and thus flow unsteadiness.

2.4 Design of Contraction Wall Profile

In the design of flow condition, contraction for low speed wind tunnels several desirable characteristics of the
wall profile are identified, including: a wall profile having first and second derivative equal to zero at the inlet
and outlet, and inlet and outlet profile radii roughly proportional to the area, that is, the inlet radius is greater
than the outlet radius. The result is hoped to be most favourable combination of flow uniformity, thin
boundary layer and negligible losses.
Over the year, many authors have been interested in methods of designing low speed wind tunnel
contraction (Jardision 1961, Morel 1975, Downie 1984). But, a fifth order polynomial developed by Bell and
Mehta (1988) is most widely used for the design of low speed wind tunnel contraction profile in two and three
dimensions which is given below.
 
h   10 3  15 4  6 5 H i  H o   H i  …. [1]
X
 .... [2]
L
Where Hi and HO are the height of contraction wall at the inlet and outlet respectively from the datum at the
axis of symmetry.
Using a transfer function like equation 1 to transform Bell and Mehta’s polynomial to arbitrary inlet and outlet
heights, while incorporating the change in shape provided by raising the polynomial to a power less than
unity. The following transfer function is provided by Brassard and Dr. Mohsen Ferchichi (2005) as

h   10 3  15 4  6 5 H i  1/ 
 HO
1/ 
 H 
i
1/  
…. [3]

Where α is some function of ξ defined for 0 < ξ <1. This function will be referred to as α function throughout.
Equation number 3 is obviously very similar to Bell and Mehta’s transfer function. It is functional nature of α
which provides interesting result. It can be shown that any function α chosen for use in equation 3,
normalized to vary between 0 and 1, will result in smooth function, maintaining first and second derivative at
inlet and outlet of the resulting contraction profile. In order to demonstrate the effect of α on h some sample
α functions are presented.

Figure 4. Contraction Wall Profile when α=1

 International Congress on Computational Mechanics and Simulation (ICCMS)
IIT Hyderabad, 10-12 December 2012

Figure 5. Contraction Wall Profile when α=0.5

Figure 6. Contraction Wall Profile when α=ξ2

It can be seen by inspection that the wall profile of figure 5 is distorted. Therefore we can select α as a
function of ξ rather than a constant. In the design of proposed wind tunnel α is chosen as a sine function of ξ,
because to generate large radius at the inlet, a smaller radius at outlet while maintaining a longer transition
of the outlet radius to the test section. The final design of contraction wall profile is shown in figure 8.
 International Congress on Computational Mechanics and Simulation (ICCMS)
IIT Hyderabad, 10-12 December 2012

Figure 7. Contraction Wall Profile when α= sinξ

Figure 8. Contraction Wall Profile

3. CFD Analysis of Proposed Wind Tunnel
In order to conduct a CFD analysis, three main tasks must be completed: grid generation, or pre-processing,
the actual computational processing of the analysis and visualization of the computational results or post-
processing.
3.1 Grid generation or Pre processing
The final mesh profile shown below consists of 1,10,000 cells, 56,200 faces and 23,401 nodes. The faces
were meshed with quadrilateral type of element for good capture of flow phenomenon with less number of
cells.

3.1.1 Grid Independency Checks

Any rigorous CFD investigation requires a grid independency check. In certain circumstances, coarse grids
can lead to the conservativeness property not being fulfilled. Also, to ensure that a solution is fully converged
it is necessary to solve a problem utilising successively refined grids until the solution is converged. Edges
nodes are multiplied by different factors, 1.2, 1.1, and 1.05 to check the grid independency. Based on the
relative error and CPU time, the initial grid size is selected i.e. 1.05.
 International Congress on Computational Mechanics and Simulation (ICCMS)
IIT Hyderabad, 10-12 December 2012

Figure 9. Grid Generations in Contraction Cone of Proposed Wind Tunnel

Figure 10. Grid independency

3.2 Processing
3.2.1 Model Selection
The Reynolds number Re was found to be 2.384 x 10-6, indicating that the flow is steady state turbulent.
Hence the flow is modelled using Turbulent RNG K-e model. The RNG k-epsilon model provides an
alternative technique for deriving turbulence closure models. It was first introduced by Yakhot et al (1986)
who applied a complex mathematical technique termed as Renormalisation Group Theory (RNG) to the
Navier-Stokes equations and derived an alternative two-equation k-epsilon turbulence model.
3.2.2 Boundary Conditions and Scheme
Inlet Boundary Condition Velocity Inlet (6.67 M/S.)
Outlet Boundary Condition Outflow
Wall 1,2 Stationary wall

3.2.3 Convergence Criteria

The convergence criteria is set to 10-8 and convergence is achieved after approximately 50 iteration for
turbulent k-epsilon model. The residual were plotted and the plot is shown below.
 International Congress on Computational Mechanics and Simulation (ICCMS)
IIT Hyderabad, 10-12 December 2012

Figure 11. Residual Plot using k-epsilon model

3.3 Post Processing
The contour of velocity and pressure were plotted and analyzed. The plots are given below. The post-processor
is then utilised in order to visualise the resulting fluid flow in terms of velocities, pressures and other flow
variables. Once the computational analysis is complete, the results must be converted to a form that is easily
understood. This can be accomplished through the use of commercial software such FLUENT 6.3. These
programs use the computational grid and analytical results to produce still pictures, or in the case of unsteady
data, animations, that illustrate the characteristics of the flow of interest. Data can be presented in a number of
forms, including vector fields or streamlines to represent velocity, isometric surfaces to display regions where a
given property is constant, and grid slices, which show property variation as a series of contours.

Figure 12. Contour of Velocity Magnitude

 International Congress on Computational Mechanics and Simulation (ICCMS)
IIT Hyderabad, 10-12 December 2012

Figure 12. Contour of Velocity Vector

Figure 13. Contour of Static Pressure

4. Conclusion
The open circuit blow down type wind tunnel is designed successfully using design rule of R. D. Mehta and
further it is validated using commercial CFD code fluent 6.3. All considered flow quality factors such as mean
flow variation, turbulence are well within the expected level. The desired speed 40 m/s at the outlet of test section
is achieved. The contraction ratio of designed contraction wall profile is 6.007 which show very good design of
contraction wall profile.
References
[1] Rae, W. H. & Pope, A., 1984, “Low-speed wind tunnel testing”, 2nd edn. John Wiley & sons
[2] R. D. Mehta and P. Bradshaw, November 1979, “Design Rules for Small Low Speed Wind Tunnels”,
Aeronautical Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society, Page Number 442 – 449.
[3] J. E. Sargison, G. J. Walker and R. Rossi, 13 – 17 December 2004, “Design and Calibration of a Wind
Tunnel with Two Dimensional Contraction”, 15th Australian Fluid Mechanics Conference, the University of
Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
 International Congress on Computational Mechanics and Simulation (ICCMS)
IIT Hyderabad, 10-12 December 2012
[4] M. Abbaspour, M. N. Shojaee, 10 December 2009, “Innovative Approach to Design a New Low Speed
Wind Tunnel”, International Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, Vol. 6, No. 1. Page Number
23 -34, ISSN: 1735 – 1472.
[5] R. D. Mehta, September 1985, “Turbulent Boundary Layer Perturbed by a Screen”, AIAA Journal, Vol. 23,
No. 9, Page Number 1335 – 1342.
[6] J. H. Bell and R. D. Mehta, March 1989, “Boundary Layer Prediction for Small Low Speed Contractions,
AIAA Journal, Vol. 27, No. 3, Page Number 372 – 374
[7] Borger, G. G., 1976, “The optimization of wind tunnel contractions for the subsonic range”, Tech. Rep. TTF
16899. NASA.
[8] Johansson, A. V., 1992, “A low speed wind-tunnel with extreme flow quality-design and tests”, Proc. the 18th
ICAS Congress pp. 1603 - 1611.

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