Design of a New Contraction for the ARL (Aeronautical Research Laboratories) Low Speed Wind Tunnel

Abstract

A numerical method is developed for the solution of Stoke's Streamfunction. The method is applied to the exisiting Low Speed Wind Tunnel (LSWT) contraction shape. The calculated wall pressure coefficient distribution is compared to experimental measurements to test the approximation of axial symmetry made for the octagonal sections and for the effects of neglecting viscous forces. Reasonable agreement is obtained. The existing contraction is known to suffer from intermittent boundary layer separation near the entry caused by adverse pressure gradients. A new contraction shape is suggested that uses the contraction ratio of the existing LSWT so that the new design can be installed within the existing LSWT in the form of an inner skin. The new design, which is about 10% longer than the existing contraction, has an adverse pressure gradient near the inlet which is about 1/5 of that of the existing contraction while the adverse pressure gradient near the exit is around the same value. Keywords: Wind tunnel nozzles, Subsonic wind tunnels, Flow distribution, Australia.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 1986
Accession Number
ADA200516

Entities

People

  • J. H. Watmuff

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Agreements
  • Boundaries
  • Boundary Layer
  • Coefficients
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Computer Programs
  • Computers
  • Differential Equations
  • Engineering
  • Equations
  • Fluid Mechanics
  • Geometry
  • Layers
  • Measurement
  • Pressure Gradients
  • Symmetry
  • Wind Tunnels

Readers

  • Fluid Dynamics.