Designing a multi-purpose wind tunnel suitable for limited spaces

Abstract

A new design for a multi-purpose wind tunnel suitable for limited space is proposed. Toronto Metropolitan University is located in the downtown area of the city of Toronto, Canada, which is a busy location with limited campus space. A relatively small space was made available to our research team to house the proposed wind tunnel and for that purpose, the research team has developed the proposed design to maximize the ability to generate multiple types of flows within the wind tunnel. The design methodology includes several flow-enhancing parameters to ensure the homogeneity of the flow across the tunnel sections using Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations. Also, the capability of the proposed tunnel to simulate tornado, downburst gust front, as well as Atmospheric Boundary Layer flows was evaluated. Several simulations were conducted to model each of those wind flows while altering wind tunnel parameters controlling those events. The resulting wind fields are saved in a large database, which is utilized to find the best matching wind field for a given target event. Moreover, a 1:5 prototype wind tunnel was constructed and tested quantitatively for downbursts and qualitatively for tornadoes. The quantitative test involved measuring the downburst gust front velocity profile and comparing it with a real event, while the qualitative test involved generating a tornadic flow in the tunnel while visualizing the resulting flow. The proposed wind tunnel represents a unique design suitable for limited spaces and offers a wide modeling versatility that is rarely found in one facility.

Keywords

• Computational fluid dynamics
• Wind tunnel design
• Atmospheric boundary layer
• Tornadoes
• Downbursts