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Wind tunnels remain an essential element in the design and development of flight vehicles. However, graduates in aerospace engineering tend to have had little exposure to the demands of industrial experimental work, particularly at high speed, a situation exacerbated by a lack of up-to-date reference material. In an attempt to fill this gap, this paper presents an overview of the current and near-term status and usage of transonic industrial wind tunnels. The review is aimed at recent entrants to the field, with the aim of helping them make the step from research projects in small university facilities to commercial projects in large industrial facilities. In addition, a picture has emerged from the review that contradicts received wisdom that the wind tunnel is in decline. Globally, the industrial transonic wind tunnel is undergoing somewhat of a renaissance. Numbers are increasing, investment levels are rising, capabilities are being enhanced, and facilities are busy.

High-performance sports cars rely on aerodynamics for stability and speed, but developing aero packages is challenging when wind tunnel testing is limited. In this study, we employed a simulation-guided design loop to maximize downforce and minimize drag on a sports car using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Thirteen aerodynamic modifications—including splitters, ducts, diffusers, and a Drag Reduction System (DRS)—were iteratively tested using CFD. To ensure numerical reliability, a mesh independence study and convergence analysis were performed, confirming stable aerodynamic predictions. The final configuration achieved an ~11× increase in downforce at 120 km/h (from about 320 N to 3588 N), meeting the design goal of roughly 2000 kg of downforce at 177 mph when scaled. This extreme downforce came with higher drag (CD ≈ 0.83), so a dual-mode approach was developed: a DRS configuration provides moderate downforce with 50% less drag (CD ≈ 0.41) for high-speed efficiency. A 1:12-scale wind tunnel test qualitatively supported the CFD predictions by visualizing wake narrowing and improved flow attachment. While quantitative force validation was not possible due to Reynolds mismatch and facility constraints, the qualitative results increased confidence in the CFD-based findings. Overall, the study demonstrates that substantial aerodynamic gains can be achieved under resource constraints, offering a practical framework for motorsport engineers and manufacturers to optimize aero kits when conventional full-scale testing is not accessible.

Large-scale flow field computation and wind tunnel experimental testing are both essential tools in the field of aerodynamics research and development. Despite the high cost of wind tunnel testing, it is an essential tool for validation of computational results, ensuring air vehicle flight safety. The evaluation of flow quality in test section of a wind tunnel is a crucial step for professional operation the tunnel. Although, several experiments have been carried out to measure flow uniformity and variation in Shiraz University Transonic Wind Tunnel (SUTWT), there is no information available on free turbulence intensity of this tunnel. Therefore, as a first step in examining the free turbulent flow quality in the test area of SUTWT, this study is attempted. In this research, turbulence parameters such as turbulence intensity, skewness, kurtosis, power spectrum and velocity profiles at various stations of the test section in different operational states of the tunnel examined using hot wire anemometry. The ultimate findings of the study reveal an average turbulence intensity of 0.45 and 0.51% at Mach 0.32 and 0.4, respectively. However, due to possible existence of rake vibration and acoustic noise of engines, it is expected that the actual turbulence intensities would be lower. Moreover, the measured statistical values, including skewness and kurtosis, have been appropriately validated to ensure the optimal Gaussian distribution, and a comparison between the variations of the free stream power spectrum and the decay line of the Kolmogorov energy spectrum indicates a satisfactory correlation.

The present model geometry is a recent iteration of the Joubert (Defence Science and Technology, Tech. Rep. TR-1920, 2006) generic conventional submarine design and is known as the “BB2”. Wind-tunnel testing of the model at 10 ∘ yaw, by China-clay visualisation and by ensemble-averaged measurements using high-resolution stereoscopic particle image velocimetry, shows a similar wake flow at the model-length Reynolds numbers R e L = 4 × 10 6 and 8 × 10 6 . The most significant flow feature is on the model upper hull. It is a system of three co-rotating vortices produced by a cruciform appendage which consists of a vertical fin (or sail in American terminology) and two horizontal hydroplanes. Circulation is strongest from the fin tip followed by the windward hydroplane, then the leeward hydroplane. Vortex tracking shows a down-wash of the fin-tip vortex, where the wind-ward- and lee-ward-hydroplane vortices spiral in the rotation direction of the fin-tip vortex. The interpreted flow includes a U-shaped vortex line around the leeward hydroplane, where this vortex line connects the fin-tip vortex and a surface vortex on the leeward side of the fin.

The paper presents the design and experimental testing of the control system used in a new morphing wing application with a full-scaled portion of a real wing. The morphing actuation system uses four similar miniature brushless DC (BLDC) motors placed inside the wing, which execute a direct actuation of the flexible upper surface of the wing made from composite materials. The control system of each actuator uses three control loops (current, speed and position) characterised by five control gains. To tune the control gains, the Particle Swarm Optimisation (PSO) method is used. The application of the PSO method supposed the development of a MATLAB/Simulink® software model for the controlled actuator, which worked together with a software sub-routine implementing the PSO algorithm to find the best values for the five control gains that minimise the cost function. Once the best values of the control gains are established, the software model of the controlled actuator is numerically simulated in order to evaluate the quality of the obtained control system. Finally, the designed control system is experimentally validated in bench tests and wind-tunnel tests for all four miniature actuators integrated in the morphing wing experimental model. The wind-tunnel testing treats the system as a whole and includes, besides the evaluation of the controlled actuation system, the testing of the integrated morphing wing experimental model and the evaluation of the aerodynamic benefits brought by the morphing technology on this project. From this last perspective, the airflow on the morphing upper surface of the experimental model is monitored by using various techniques based on pressure data collection with Kulite pressure sensors or on infrared thermography camera visualisations.

The focus of this paper is on the modelling of miniature electromechanical actuators used in a morphing wing application, on the development of a control concept for these actuators, and on the experimental validation of the designed control system integrated in the morphing wing-tip model for a real aircraft. The assembled actuator includes as its main component a brushless direct current motor coupled to a trapezoidal screw by using a gearing system. A Linear Variable Differential Transformer (LVDT) is attached on each actuator giving back the actuator position in millimetres for the control system, while an encoder placed inside the motor provides the position of the motor shaft. Two actuation lines, each with two actuators, are integrated inside the wing model to change its shape. For the experimental model, a full-scaled portion of an aircraft wing tip is used with the chord length of 1.5 meters and equipped on the upper surface with a flexible skin made of composite fibre materials. A controllable voltage provided by a power amplifier is used to drive the actuator system. In this way, three control loops are designed and implemented, one to control the torque and the other two to control the position in a parallel architecture. The parallel position control loops use feedback signals from different sources. For the first position control loop, the feedback signal is provided by the integrated encoder, while for the second one, the feedback signal comes from the LVDT. For the experimental model, the parameters for the torque control, but also for the position control-based encoder signal, are implemented in the power amplifier energising the electrical motor. On the other hand, a National Instruments real-time system is used to implement and test the position control-based LVDT signal. The experimental validation of the developed control system is realised in two independent steps: bench testing with no airflow and wind-tunnel testing. The pressure data provided by a number of Kulite sensors equipping the flexible skin upper surface and the infrared thermography camera visualisations are used to estimate the laminar-to-turbulent transition point position.

Complex terrain can influence wind turbine wakes and wind speed profiles in a wind farm. Consequently, predicting the performance of wind turbines and energy production over complex terrain is more difficult than it is over flat terrain. In this preliminary study, an engineering wake model, that considers acceleration on a two-dimensional hill, was developed based on the momentum theory. The model consists of the wake width and wake wind speed. The equation to calculate the rotor thrust, which is calculated by the wake wind speed profiles, was also formulated. Then, a wind-tunnel test was performed in simple flow conditions in order to investigate wake development over a two-dimensional hill. After this the wake model was compared with the wind-tunnel test, and the results obtained by using the new wake model were close to the wind-tunnel test results. Using the new wake model, it was possible to estimate the wake shrinkage in an accelerating two-dimensional wind field.

This work is dedicated to systematically studying and predicting the wake characteristics of a yawed wind turbine immersed in a turbulent boundary layer. To achieve this goal, wind tunnel experiments were performed to characterize the wake of a horizontal-axis wind turbine model. A high-resolution stereoscopic particle image velocimetry system was used to measure the three velocity components in the turbine wake under different yaw angles and tip-speed ratios. Moreover, power and thrust measurements were carried out to analyse the performance of the wind turbine. These detailed wind tunnel measurements were then used to perform a budget study of the continuity and Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations for the wake of a yawed turbine. This theoretical analysis revealed some notable features of the wakes of yawed turbines, such as the asymmetric distribution of the wake skew angle with respect to the wake centre. Under highly yawed conditions, the formation of a counter-rotating vortex pair in the wake cross-section as well as the vertical displacement of the wake centre were shown and analysed. Finally, this study enabled us to develop general governing equations upon which a simple and computationally inexpensive analytical model was built. The proposed model aims at predicting the wake deflection and the far-wake velocity distribution for yawed turbines. Comparisons of model predictions with the wind tunnel measurements show that this simple model can acceptably predict the velocity distribution in the far wake of a yawed turbine. Apart from the ability of the model to predict wake flows in yawed conditions, it can provide valuable physical insight on the behaviour of turbine wakes in this complex situation.

The standard model is a standard calibration model that has a well-known geometric shape and can represent the aerodynamic layout characteristics of a certain type of aircraft. It has many functions, including evaluating the accuracy of wind tunnel test data, verifying the integrity of the wind tunnel flow field and measurement system, and developing and verifying wind tunnel test technology. Conducting wind tunnel tests using standard models is a key step in realizing the functions of standard models. However, all existing literature on standard model tests has not effectively evaluated the uncertainty of the test results, which makes it impossible to evaluate the reliability of the test results. Based on the GUM and MCM uncertainty analysis methods, this paper establishes a method for quantitatively evaluating the uncertainty of the test results of high-speed wind tunnel standard model tests through rigorous mathematical derivation, providing technical support for precisely quantifying the uncertainty of standard model test results.