Air Flow Around A High Speed Train
Project | Aerodynamics | CFD Analysis | Wind Tunnel | Results | Conclusion | Extra Material | References

Wind Tunnel Testing

The departmental wind tunnel used for this project was a low-speed return flow, wind tunnel. The air is moved with a propulsion system made of a large axial fan that increases the dynamic pressure to overcome the viscous losses.


A return flow wind tunnel

Flow visualisation, using smoke particles along with pressure and velocity experiments using pitot tubes were performed at various velocities.


Limitations Of Wind Tunnel Testing

Dynamic testing of models require the Reynolds number to be the same as that of the full size model. To achieve this dynamic similarity with a smaller model, the velocity needs to be increased.

The required velocity of the wind tunnel was approximatley 500 m/s but unfortunatley the maximum measured velocity through the centre of the wind tunnel was 47.8 m/s.

Wind Tunnel Model Images

Stuart Rees 2003

sturees@engineer.com