introduction to universiti teknologi malaysia low speed wind tunnel (utm-lst)

UTM LOW SPEED WIND TUNNEL November, 2008

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LOW SPEED WIND TUNNEL UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA

Prepared by Assoc Prof Ir Dr Shuhaimi Mansor Head of Aeronautical Engineering Laboratory Universiti Teknologi Malaysia


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1. Introduction to UTM Wind Tunnel Facility 2

TABLE OF CONTENTS Page

2.1 Test Section 2 2.2 Fan Motor and Drive System 3 2.3 Settling Chamber 4

2. Facility Arrangement 4

3. Balance and Model Support System 5

4. Surface Pressure Measurement 7

5. Flow Visualization 8

6. Facility Control System 8

APPENDIX 9-13


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1. Introduction to UTM Wind Tunnel Facility

The UTM low speed wind tunnel is commissioned in 2001 and has served for more than 7 years. Our clients include researchers from universities and designers from industries such as USM, UTeM, UPM, MINDEF, MODENAS, PROTON and others. UTM wind tunnel has capability to provide wide range of testing include aircraft, ground surface vehicle and industrial aerodynamics such as building, bridges, street-lantern light and wind turbine. General Arrangement of the wind tunnel is shown in Figure 1. There are three important components in the wind tunnel which is known as test section, fan-motor and settling chamber.

1.2 Test Section Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Low Speed Wind Tunnel (UTM-LST) is capable of delivering maximum airspeed of 80 m/s (160 knots or 288 km/hr) inside the test section. The test section size is 2.0 m wide x 1.5 m height x 5.5 m length. The wind tunnel has an excellent flow quality (flow uniformity < 0.15%, temperature uniformity < 0.2o, flow angularity uniformity < 0.15o, turbulence < 0.06%). With good flow quality and facility, UTM-LST is confident to deliver high accuracy and good repeatability of wind tunnel test results.

Test Section

Fan & Motor

Fan Diffuser

Cross leg 2

Cross-leg 1

Settling Chamber .Honeycomb .Heat Excahnger .Screens

Figure 1. Wind tunnel components


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2.1 Fan Motor and Drive System UTM wind tunnel is propelled by 430 kW ac Motor from ABB with Allen Bradley drive system. The measured power consumption of the motor with test section wind speed is shown in Figure 3.

Figure 2. Aircraft model is installed in the test section and attached to a 6-components balance/load-cell to measure aerodynamic forces and moment in 3-dimensional loads.

Figure 3. Fan-motor and power consumption with wind speed.


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2.2 Settling Chamber Settling chamber is an area where the flow is control using honeycomb and three screens. Honeycomb is used to straighten the flow while the screens are used to reduce the turbulence intensity. Heat exchanger is used to reject heat generates from air friction and maintain the test section temperature at normal condition. Figure 4 shows the effect of heat exchanger on test section temperature.

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 26

28

30

32

34

36

38

40

Tem

pera

ture

( o C

)

Time (minutes)

Cooling System Test at 70 m/s, set temp=27.8oC, ambient=27.0oC

Cooling OFF 0.29 oC/minutes

Cooling ON 0.06 oC/minutes

Figure 4. Heat exchanger to maintain test section air temperature.

Figure 5. Honeycomb is used to straighten the flow and screen is used to reduce the turbulence intensity.


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3. Facility Arrangement

The wind tunnel is housing inside the Aeronautical Engineering Laboratory building. The wind tunnel is furnished with compress air facility for general purpose applications. The test section is connected to wind tunnel control room via metal structure platform.

4. Balance and Model Support System

The wind tunnel is equipped with a 6-component balance for load measurements. The balance is a pyramidal type with virtual balance moment at the centre of the test section. The balance has a capability to measure aerodynamic forces and moment in 3-dimensional. The aerodynamic loads can be tested at various wind direction by rotating the model via turntable. The accuracy of the balance is within 0.04% based on 1 standard deviation. The maximum load range is ±1200N for axial and side loads (i.e. drag force and side force).

The wind tunnel is originally furnished with 3-strut support system as shown in Figure 7. This type of model support system is commonly used in most well known wind tunnels (e.g. DNW Holland, NLR German, IAR-NRC Canada and ILST Indonesia).

Figure 6. Wind tunnel arrangement and control room


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Various model support systems had been designed to accommodate various types of model tests requirements. It ranges from a simple single strut to 4-strut support system. Figure 8 to 11 shows some of the examples of model support systems in UTM wind tunnel.

Figure 9. Assembly of street lantern light using single-strut support

Figure 8. Assembly of bridge model on 3-struts support

Figure 7. Wind tunnel Balance and Model Support System


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Figure 11. Assembly of Proton Savvy model on 4-strut support

5. Surface Pressure Measurement

Surface pressure measurement is using electronic pressure scanner 128 port scanivalve system.

Figure 12. Surface pressure measurement of the roof

Figure 10. Assembly of helicopter model using 2-strut support


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6. Flow Visualization

Flow visualization is a qualitative technique to visualise the flow pattern on the surface of the model. Smoke is commonly use for flow visualization.

7. Facility Control System

Fully integrated automatic Control, Data Acquisition and Reduction System (DARS)

Figure 13. Flow visualization using smoke and oil

Figure 14. Facility control with automatic control, data acquisition system


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Contact Person Assoc. Prof. Ir. Dr. Shuhaimi B Mansor Head of Aeronautics Laboratory Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

Universiti Teknologi Malaysia 81310 Skudai, JOHOR

Tel: 07 5535845, Fax: 07 5535997, Mobile: 019 7799778, Email: [email protected] APPENDIX

Universiti Teknologi MalaysiaLow Speed Wind Tunnel

TEST CAPABILITIES

• Aircraft model

• Building models• Automotive model

• Aircraft • Surface Vehicle• Wind Engineering• Offshore structures• Internal flow

mailto:[email protected]�


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UTM-LST Flow QualityParameters Measured value

Velocity Spatial Uniformity 0.13 %

Temperature spatial uniformity 0.16 °C

Flow Angularity, pitch 0.13o

Flow Angularity, Yaw 0.13 °

Axial Wind Speed Gradient 0.0003°/m

Flow Angle Gradient, pitch 0.003°/m

Flow Angle Gradient, Yaw 0.070°/m

Velocity Temporal Uniformity 0.046 %

Temperature Temporal Unifermity 0.08 °C

Axial Turbulence Intensity, Urms/U,5 Hz <f<10kHz

0.037 %


Pressure Measurement

• Capability 128 pressure ports

• 2 x 64-port Electronic Pressure Scanner(Scanivalve DMS 3000 ZOC Series)

• Pressure rating 1 psid, 5 psid FS

• +/- 0.08 FS accuracy


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Airflow Test Equipment

• Hotwire Anemometry System (Dantec Dynamics)

• Smoke Generator

• Laser Sheet System

• 5-hole Probe, 7-Hole Probe

• Wake Rake


Balance Load RangeLoad Component and Accuracy

Type of Balance

External Semi-Span Internal

Axial Force, Fx (N) ± 1200 ± 900 ± 182

Side Force, Fy(N) ± 1200 ± 900 ± 356

Normal Force, Fz (N) ± 4500 ± 4500 ± 445

Roll Moment, Mx (Nm) ± 450 ± 1362 ± 7

Pitch Moment, My (Nm) ± 450 ± 250 ± 62

Yaw Moment, Mz (Nm) ± 450 ± 450 ± 50

Primary Accuracy, % (basedon ± 1 standard deviation)

0.04 0.04 < 0 .10


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Training Providers• Indonesia Low Speed Wind Tunnel, ILST-LAGG

(Indonesia)• Aiolos Engineering Corporation (Canada)• Institute of Aerospace Research, IAR-NRC (Canada)• Carleton University (Canada)• University of Western Ontario UWO-BLWT (Canada)• Aerodynamic Model and Research Inc. AMR (Canada)


Cooperation & Networking• 4 m x 3 m Low Speed Wind Tunnel Facility

(Indonesia)• Technical assistance (planning, technical requirements)• Training • Joint Research Program• Testing Services

• Institute of Aerospace Research, IAR-NRC (Canada)• Training • Post-Commissioning/Expert Services• Joint Research Program• Testing Services


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Cooperation & NetworkingSubsonic Aerodynamics Testing Association (SATA)

• world-wide organization for operators of low speed aerodynamic testing facilities (since 1965)

• Membership from all major wind tunnel facilities DNW, Boeing, NASA, GM, Ford, IAR-NRC etc.

• provide at the operational level a means of interchange of ideas, techniques, and solutions. General area of interest:

• Design, performance, and economics of test facilities. • Physical measurement, instrumentation, and handling and

reduction of data• Facility operation and maintenance

• UTM to be a member 2001/02

introduction to universiti teknologi malaysia low speed wind tunnel (utm-lst)

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