Wind Tunnel Facilities

In addition to FAME capabilities, SDSUÕs Wind-Tunnel Laboratory is available for use to sponsors. The low- and high-speed wind tunnels in this laboratory share a LabVIEW data reduction system.

The San Diego State UniversityÕs Low-Speed Tunnel is a single-return, closed jet, continuous-flow tunnel designed and built by the Kenney Engineering Corporation of Pasadena, California. The low speed wind tunnel is of a closed return design and its test section is 32 inches high, 45 inches wide and 68Ó long. Inlet contraction ratio is 6.3:1 and test speeds can go as high as 180 mph. Model support includes a six-component sting mounted balance for conventional airplane configuration testing and a ground mounted six-component scale system for automotive model testing. A set of turbulence damping screens was added in the stilling chamber upstream of the test section to lower the turbulence level. The addition of these screens reduced the turbulence factor in the test section from 2.0 to the present value of 1.27.

The supersonic wind tunnel is a blow-down design and is being fed from a 180 psi compressed-air tank. The test section has a 6 x 6 inch square shape and test speeds can vary between Mach numbers 1 to 4. A numerical simulation program for the flow field over airplanes and various bodies is installed on a Sun computer and fast comparisons are possible between current computational methods and experimental results. Additional scientific equipment includes a 48 port scanivalve, various electronic equipment (e.g. oscilloscopes) and manometers. Both wind tunnels are equipped with flow visualization instrumentation such as smoke, helium bubble, laser-sheet, Schlieren, etc.