Introduction To Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Low Speed Wind Tunnel (UTM-LST)
Introduction To Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Low Speed Wind Tunnel (UTM-LST)
Introduction To Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Low Speed Wind Tunnel (UTM-LST)
Prepared by
Assoc Prof Ir Dr Shuhaimi Mansor
Head of Aeronautical Engineering Laboratory
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
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UTM LOW SPEED WIND TUNNEL November, 2008
2. Facility Arrangement 4
5. Flow Visualization 8
APPENDIX 9-13
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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.
Fan Diffuser
Cross leg 2
Fan & Motor
Settling Chamber
.Honeycomb Test Section
.Heat Excahnger
.Screens Cross-leg 1
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.
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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.
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.
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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.
o o
Cooling System Test at 70 m/s, set temp=27.8 C, ambient=27.0 C
40
38
36 Cooling OFF
o
0.29 C/minutes
Temperature ( C)
o
34
32
Cooling ON
o
0.06 C/minutes
30
28
26
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Time (minutes)
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.
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).
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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.
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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.
Fully integrated automatic Control, Data Acquisition and Reduction System (DARS)
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
APPENDIX
TEST CAPABILITIES
• Aircraft
• Surface Vehicle
• Wind Engineering
• Offshore structures
• Internal flow
• Aircraft model
• Building models
• Automotive model
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Pressure Measurement
• 2 x 64-port Electronic
Pressure Scanner
(Scanivalve DMS 3000
ZOC Series)
• Pressure rating
1 psid, 5 psid FS
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• Smoke Generator
• Wake Rake
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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)
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