The test section is a 17" cube. It's a suck down tunnel, with the diffuser
opening up to te 27" diameter of the 1/4hp fan we have. We're not entirely
sure how fast it should go, but a rough (very rough) estimate is 40mph. We
finished the diffuser Friday and hooked up the fan. Now we can truthfully say
that our project sucks! We're quite happy with it. Building a pitot tube is
not out of the question, but being sure it's producing accurate outputs is
kind of questionable. I'd be very interested in the designs you've built and
how they work.

I'm a bit uncertain about linkages for measuring the forces acting on the
models, though. We're planning on at least testing a few wing sections, which
are seemingly easy if mounted on a lever protruding out the side of the test
section. Still, it would be nice to have a few complete models to test, and I
do'nt know how good that setup would be for them. Searches online haven't
revealed much regarding how professional wind tunnels mount test articles.
Can you lend any advice in this area?

On a side note, if anyone's interested, I've built up a typical WWI airfoil,
based on an Albatros D.V wing, and will also make sections of general
aviation, airliner, laminar flow, and high speed wings to investigate their
characteristics at low speeds.


-Tony


In a message dated 1/28/02 3:20:52 AM Pacific Standard Time,
mike.blakey@BAESYSTEMS.COM writes:

<< What size (diameter) is your tunnel? and what air speed. We have got a few
tunnels
 here ;-) so I'm happy to help. We / I have made several Pitot-static probes
and
 force sensors for calculating drag etc. >>

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