The Wind Channel: Its Design and Use

Abstract

It has long been realised that experiments in the laboratory on small models afford in certain cases a means of obtaining, cheaply and rapidly, information on the behaviour of the actual structure under the conditions in which it is to be used. This plan has been adopted in many branches of science, and in none to a larger extent than in naval and aeronautical architecture. The problems to be investigated are usually those connected with the motion of bodies through a fluid, but if we accept the principle of relative motion we have an alternative method open to us for our model experiments. We may, if we wish, reverse the conditions and set the fluid in motion, the model remaining stationary. Generally speaking, one plan has been adopted in naval architecture and the other in aeronautics. In the former case models are towed through water in a ship tank, while in the latter they are placed in a tube through which air is passed.