Low Speed Open Circuit Wind Tunnel Design

This senior design capstone project focuses on the design and manufacture of a small low speed open circuit teaching wind tunnel and its associated instrumentation. The wind tunnel is to be utilized in teaching laboratories in the Mechanical Engineering department at the University of Wyoming. The tunnel is designed to produce high quality flow within the test section to enable aerodynamic testing. Aerodynamic models are attached to a model mount which simultaneously determines the lift and drag. The fan and thus airspeed within the tunnel is controlled by a central LabVIEW program which also reports the lift and drag data from the model mount to the operator terminal.