Numerical analysis of a mini wind tunnel and experimental investigation of the mini wind tunnel utilizing a portable, three-axis load/balance measurement system

Abstract

Investigation of a portable three-axis load/balance measurement system in a mini wind tunnel is the main subject of study. Firstly, a mini wind tunnel is designed, numerically analyzed and constructed. Then, measurements of lift and drag forces on a selected airfoil are carried out using data from the measurement system located in the test area. Tri-axis load/balance measurement system developed has a total of three load cells, one for drag and two for lift. Sensor data acquisition codes are written using Ardunio and force measurement experiments are performed at various angles of attack on the NACA2412 airfoil at Reynolds number of 60000, for the maximum flow rate of 5200 m3/h through fan controller in the constructed mini wind tunnel. After completing the mesh independence test, numerical studies are conducted in ANSYS Fluent for the same range of angles of attack using three different turbulence models. Realizable k-ε turbulence model gives more realistic high stall angles of attack than other turbulence models and similar to experimental results. In addition to the current experimental study, four other literature studies in similar Reynolds number ranges are used as reference cases. A visual study of the flow around the airfoil is given as velocity contours in addition to the numerical comparisons. From the numerical and experimental results, it is concluded that the NACA2412 airfoil profile wings are more efficient for moderate to high Reynolds numbers and the constructed load/balance measurement system and mini wind tunnel are highly successful in terms of lift and drag measurements.