Blower Tunnel Facility

Descriptive Overview
The Facility is an open-air wind tunnel for the testing of aircraft, vehicles and self-standing structures and may be adapted to simulate driving rain and icing conditions.

Characteristics of Facility

• A 3m-diameter tube 13m long supporting a concentric 1.5m diameter inner tube containing the drive motors for the fans. The tunnel may be tilted to angles of up to ±7° from the horizontal.
• Airspeed variations of between 20m/s and 180m/s.
• Reduction of the air stream temperature by up to 30°C can be achieved using liquid nitrogen cooling of the air stream, depending on airspeed. Water of the appropriate droplet size can be added to form ice on the test subject. Wind driven rain can be simulated.
• A catch-net system is available to catch aircraft/canopies and ejection seats after release into the tunnel air stream.
• Handling of 500 parameters, with up to 16 pages of real time parameter displays. Permanent records of data can be made on CD or floppy disc for subsequent analysis. This data comprises any variable that the test piece is instrumented for. Instrumentation is either provided by the customer or becomes one of the Design, Manufacture, Installation projects.