International Journal of Advances in Science and Technology, Vol. 2, No.

6, 2011

Design of Various Components of an Open Circuit Blower Tunnel without Exit Diffuser
Ranjan Basak1, Debojyoti Mitra2, Asis Mazumdar3
1

Assistant Professor, Sir Padampat Singhania University, Udaipur ranjan.basak@spsu.ac.in

Principal, Laxmi Narayan College of Technology Indore, Indore, India, dmitra2k@yahoo.com 3Director, School Of Water Resource Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India

Abstract
A wind tunnel is an essential tool in engineering, both for model tests and basic research. To ensure a controlled return flow, most of the tunnels are designed as a closed circuit type. However, it is possible to achieve high performance from an open circuit tunnel, therefore saving space and construction cost. For easy of changing the working section the exit diffuser is often omitted from open circuit blower tunnels at the cost of power factor greater than unity. In this paper detail design procedure is discussed for open circuit blower tunnel without exit diffuser.

Keywords: open circuit blower tunnel, wide angle diffuser, contraction cone, working section, power
factor

1. Introduction:
The aerodynamic design of open circuit wind tunnel driven by a centrifugal blower connected to the settling chamber by a wide angle diffuser is discussed. The design or choice of blower, diffuser, screens, contraction and working section are described here. They have a strong influence on tunnel performance. The design rules and suggestions are mainly based on data collected from successful blower tunnel design. The design of blower driven wind tunnel is a combination of arts, science and common sense, the last being the essential. It is difficult and unwise to predict firm rules for tunnel design. This is mainly due to the wide variety of tunnel design and the lack of understanding of the flow through wind tunnel components like diffuser, screen and blower itself. It is more feasible and sensible to predict design boundaries based on the data from existing tunnels which are known to perform satisfactorily.

2. Centrifugal Blower:
A "blower" tunnel is driven by an impeller at entry, usually a true (centrifugal) blower which is almost always of the backward-airfoil or squirrel-cage type rather than the old-fashioned radial-blade variety seen, for example, in car water pumps and domestic hair dryers. The airfoil blades of a centrifugal blower run at nominally the same angle of attack all along the span, and the reduction in pressure rise as the blades stall is gradual, without much deterioration in outlet flow steadiness and uniformity. It must be said that the outlet flow from a centrifugal blower is disturbed at the best of times, but not much worse than the likely condition of the flow at exit from the main diffuser of a closed-circuit tunnel. Centrifugal blower design process reduces to searching the manufacturer's catalog for a unit that produces the required total-pressure rise at the required volume flow rate. These blowers are usually made of cast metal.

3. Wide Angle Diffuser:

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The uniformity of flow in a wind tunnel can be greatly improved if a contraction section or nozzle of large area ratio is proved immediately upstream of the working section. If a large diffuser area ratio is required, so as to provide a large contraction ratio, a long conventional diffuser, with an equivalent cone angle of 5, is undesirable economically. For instance, if a contraction ratio of 12 is required, a 5 diffuser with a length of 20 times the working-section diameter would be needed. A short diffuser, with a large area ratio and, consequently, a large equivalent cone angle, is then installed. Thus a wide-angle diffuser is defined as a diffuser in which the cross-sectional area increases so rapidly that separation can be avoided only by using boundary layer control. A wide-angle diffuser should be regarded as a means of reducing the length of a diffuser of given area ratio, rather than a device to effect pressure recovery (the dynamic pressure ahead of the settling chamber is so small compared to that in the test section that pressure gains or losses are almost negligible). Uniformity and steadiness of the flow at the diffuser exit are of prime concern since this affects the performance of vital components downstream. In particular, intermittent separation in the wide-angle diffuser would almost certainly result in an unacceptable level of flow unsteadiness in the working section.

4. Settling Chamber:
The "settling chamber" or "stilling section" is the largest cross section, and contains a honeycomb and/or screen. A honeycomb with its cells aligned in the flow direction will reduce mean or fluctuating variations in transverse velocity (flow direction), with little effect on stream wise velocity because the pressure drop through a honeycomb is small. Woven-wire screens mainly reduce stream wise velocity fluctuations, with little effect on flow direction because the "refractive index" of a screen is small. The settling chamber itself is never long enough for pre-existing tunnel turbulence to decay significantly, so the name is misleading. The honeycomb, always mounted upstream of the main antiturbulence screens, should be far enough downstream of the start of the parallel-sided settling chamber for the flow to be roughly parallel to the axis. If a wide-angle diffuser with screens is mounted upstream of the settling chamber it will usually have a screen at exit where the wall angle changes suddenly, and this screen will help to reduce the flow angle. Also, a screen may be mounted ahead of the honeycomb in an opencircuit tunnel, to reduce large deviations in flow angle which might "stall" the honeycomb. The distance between screens is not critical and a minimum is usually set by the need to mount the screens firmly, in removable frames or otherwise. Screens can be clamped, without adhesive, between two wooden frames. Tight pre-tensioning of the screens is not necessary as long as there are no wrinkles; the airflow will pull the screen into a smooth shape. The last screen should be far enough upstream of the contraction that the flow speed is still constant over the cross-section: near the entry to the contraction, the flow starts to slow down near the walls and accelerate nearer the centerline, so the pressure drop through a screen placed too near the entry will vary over the cross-section, leading to velocity variations in the test section.

5. Contraction Cone:
The contraction or "nozzle" accelerates the flow from the settling chamber into the test section, further reducing percentage variations in velocity. The old-style contraction shape with a small radius of curvature at the wide end and a large radius at the narrow end to provide a gentle entry to the test section is not the optimum. There is a danger of boundary-layer separation at the wide end, or perturbation of the flow through the last screen. Good practice is to make the ratio of the radius of curvature to the flow width The effect of a contraction on unsteady velocity variations and turbulence is more complicated; the reduction of x-component (axial) fluctuations is greater than that of transverse fluctuations. A simple analysis due to Prandtl predicts that the ratio of rootmean- square axial velocity fluctuation to mean velocity will be reduced by a factor 1/N2, as for mean-velocity variations, while the ratio of lateral rms fluctuations to mean velocity is reduced only by a factor of N; that is, the lateral fluctuations (in m/s, say) increase through the contraction, because of the stretching and spin-up of elementary longitudinal vortex lines. about the same at each end. However, too large a radius of

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International Journal of Advances in Science and Technology, Vol. 2, No.6, 2011 curvature at the upstream end leads to slow acceleration and therefore increased rate of growth of boundary-layer thickness.

6. Working Section:
Test section or working section design is totally dependent on the requirements of each individual experiment. Many open-circuit blower tunnels have detachable working sections without exit diffusers, a very flexible arrangement. An exit diffuser must be fitted if the tunnel power factor is critical. The wide variety of blower tunnel working sections ranges from quasi-two-dimensional ones (for boundary layer studies or smoke tests) to ones with special features such as slotted walls and flexible roofs. For tunnels which are used for testing models mounted in the working section, the working section size and shape are usually dictated by the need to minimize tunnel interference for a predetermined model size. The most popular cross-sectional shape for these working sections is a rectangle of about 2 to 1 ratio. If models like those of aircraft are to be tested, then it is usual for the large (span wise) dimension to be horizontal, for convenience in measuring forces.

7. Power Estimation:
Most of the power required to run a closed-circuit tunnel is absorbed by losses in the diffuser, the test section and the corners. Axial fan efficiency can exceed 90 percent if the wall boundary layers at entry are not too thick. The contraction ratio is usually chosen so that total-pressure losses in the honeycomb and screens are acceptably small, and this usually means that losses in the third and fourth corners are small also. All losses are basically due to turbulent skin friction and therefore slowly decrease, in proportion, as the tunnel size (Reynolds number) increases. The dimensionless parameter representing consumption of power delivered to the fan drive shaft, P, is the "power factor" P/ [(1/2)_U3A] where U and A are the test-section velocity and cross-sectional area and the denominator is the rate of flow of kinetic energy, (1/2)U2 per unit mass, through the test section (i.e. K.E. per unit mass times mass flow rate U). In the United States, the reciprocal of power factor, the "energy ratio", is sometimes quoted. In all cases the efficiency of the electric (or, rarely, gasoline) motor is considered separately from the tunnel power factor. It can be seen that the power factor of an open-circuit tunnel with no diffuser is always greater than unity because all the kinetic energy is dumped at the exit, and there are the usual losses elsewhere. A poor estimate of power factor obviously leads either to deficiency in maximum speed (the electric drive motor reaches maximum available voltage or current before reaching maximum speed) or to incomplete use of the available motor power (the converse). With a commutator motor it is simply necessary to alter the field excitation, and if the fan or blower is belt-driven (usual with commercial centrifugal blowers) the pulley ratio can be changed, in either case to ensure that the maximum power is extracted from the motor. If the fan or blower is so overloaded that its efficiency is low (more likely with an axial fan, due to blade stall) there is no simple cure.

8. Configuration of Different Parts:

Maximum length available=18m Cross-sectional area at working section=2m 1.8m Maximum velocity at working section=50m/sec Therefore, flow rate=180m3/sec Some existing wind tunnels: CSIRO vertical wind tunnel having contraction ratio of 7.11:1; Inlet 2000mm 2000mm and outlet 750mm 750mm. This ratio is adequate for high quality flow. Contraction length is 2040mm and velocity at entrance to contraction is 2.5m/s. Working section 225mm 225mm, contraction inlet 1200mm 225mm having contraction ratio of 5.3 which is less than that recommended. The maximum velocity at working section is 20m/s and the contraction length is 2m.

9. Design rules collected from the existing wind tunnels:

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International Journal of Advances in Science and Technology, Vol. 2, No.6, 2011 1. 2. Optimum diffuser angle is 6. Open circuit tunnels save space and construction cost. Blower tunnels (fan at the entry to the tunnel) facilitate larger changes in working section arrangements. Centrifugal fan is preferable to axial one to cope with the resulting changes in operating condition. 3. Reynolds number of 3 105 per metre working section is rare in blower tunnel. 4. The action of screen is described in terms of pressure drop coefficient K and deflection coefficient . 5. Estimation of tunnel power factor after deciding the size and configuration of the wind tunnel. The tunnel power factor is given by ratio of shaft power input to 0.5oAoVo3 where subscript o refers to the working section condition. This is required for selecting the fan and the drive unit. 6. Blower efficiency is taken as 0.8-0.9. 7. Length of the test section is taken as 1-2 times the major dimension of the working section. 8. Equivalent cone angle of diffuser is less than 7 and area ratio is taken as 5-6:1. 9. For wide angle diffuser the area ratio should not be more than 4:1 and equivalent cone angle is normally taken as 45. 10. The area ratio between fan and test section is 2-3:1. 11. For contraction ratio of 8:1, settling chamber length is 0.5 times inlet diameter, while the test section settling length 0.5-1.5 times the exit radius. Considering the above design rules, the dimensions of the different sections are taken as below: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Cross-sectional area at blower is taken as 2m 3.6m. (Because it is generally 2-3 times the cross-sectional area at working section. The length is taken as 1.3m. Contraction ratio is taken as 6:1 Contraction outlet will be same as working section i.e. 2m 1.8m Contraction inlet is 6m 3.6m Area ratio for wide angle diffuser is 3 and diffuser angle 2 is 60. The length is taken as 3.5m. Contraction is obtained in two steps: First from 6m 3.6m to 6m 1.8m over a length of 2.2m and second from 6m 1.8m to 2m 1.8m over a length of 5m.In both the cases cone angle is 45. The length of settling chamber is taken as 2.5m and that of working section is 3.5m.

7.

10. Estimation of Tunnel Power Factor:

Having decided the size and configuration of a wind tunnel, the next design step is to estimate the tunnel power factor (equal to , where H is the shaft input power and subscript o refers to working section conditions) so that the fan and the drive unit can be selected. It is difficult but in fact not essential to estimate the power factor very accurately; adequate extra power must be installed to cope with a variety of model and working section configuration, not known in advance. The pressure losses in a wind tunnel are due to diffuser losses, resistive components such as screens and friction walls. The total pressure losses due to each component can be estimated separately, then summed and divided by the blower efficiency (typically 80%) to give the tunnel power factor.

(a) Loss of Head at Exit (with no exit diffuser): In an open circuit tunnel, the amount of kinetic energy lost at the exit and dissipated into the atmosphere adds to the total losses.

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International Journal of Advances in Science and Technology, Vol. 2, No.6, 2011 Therefore (b) Losses due to Screens: Therefore The pressure drop coefficient K of the screens is taken as 1.5; three screens are used in wide angle diffuser. The ratio screen. Therefore foris taken as 2 for the first screen, 4 for the second screen and 6 for the third =1

First screen=0.375, Second screen=0.09375 and Third screen=0.04167. Therefore =0.51042 In the settling chamber also two screens are used with an area ratio of 6 and the pressure drop coefficient 1.5. Therefore 0.083

(c) Losses due to Honeycomb: A honeycomb with the pressure drop coefficient 0.5 is used. The ratio for the contraction c is taken as 6. Therefore (d) Loss due to Skin Friction(it is considered in working section only: = ,

Wheres is the duct local perimeter. It is normally only necessary to estimate skin friction losses in working section ( . Those in the diffusers are normally accounted for in the efficiency and the other components do not contribute significantly. Therefore = , where L is the working section length.

In this case L=3.5m, S=2(2+1.8) =7.6m, A=21.8=3.6m2. Assuming Cf=0.003, =0.0222 Now taking blower efficiency as 0.8 = =2.037 Therefore Total power consumption= V03 =561kW (Density of air=1.23kg/m3)

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11. Conclusion:
The design of the tunnel is based purely on the papers, literature reviews and the data obtained from other wind tunnels which are known to be working satisfactorily. However, the simulation is required to prove the design successful. The major design stage is completed but some minor designs need to be considered and refined.

12. References:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Mehta, R. D., Aspects of the Design and performance of blower tunnel components, Ph. D. Thesis, Imperial college, University of London, 1978. Mehta, R. D., The Aerodynamic design of blower tunnels with wide angle diffusers, Prog. Aerospace Sci., Vol 18, p 59, 1977. Collar, A. R., The effect of a gauze on the velocity distribution in a uniform duct, ARC r & M 1867, 1939. Bradshaw, P. and Pankhurst, R. C., The design of low speed wind tunnels, Prog. Aerospace Sci., Vol 5, p 1, 1964. Lumley, J. L. and Mcmahon, J. F., Reducing water tunnel turbulence by means of a honeycomb, ASME J Basic Engg., vol. 89D, p 764, 1967. Mehta, R.D. and Bradshaw, P., 1979, Design rules for small low speed wind tunnels, Aeronautical Journal, November 1979, 443-449.

Authors Profile
Mr. Ranjan Basak received his ME degree from Jadavpur University, India in 2000. He is currently working as an Assistant Professor in Mechanical Engineering Department, Sir Padampat Singhania University. He is having overall teaching experience of 9 years. His major research Interests are in wind engineering, environmental engineering and machine design. He has one international and several national journal and conference publications to his credit.

Dr. Debojyoti Mitra received his PhD degree from Jadavpur University, India in 2005. He did Post-Doctoral Research at The University of Western Ontario, Canada during 2006-07. He is currently working as a Principal, Laxmi Narayan College of Technology Indore, Indore, India. He is having overall teaching experience of 11 years. His major research Interests are in wind engineering, environmental engineering, Fluids and Thermal Engineering and Computational Engineering. He has ten international and several national journal and conference publications to his credit.

Prof Asis Mazumdar received his PhD degree from Jadavpur University, India in 2000. He is currently working as a Director, School Of Water Resource Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India. He is having overall teaching and research experience of 21 years. His major research Interests are in Hydraulics and Water Resources Engineering, Environmental Hydraulics, Hydrology and Limnology, Fluid Mechanics, Climate Change and Natural Resources Management, Carbon Sequestration. He has several international and national journal and conference publications to his credit.

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