ME 388 Applied

Instrumentation Laboratory
Wind Tunnel Lab

References
Munson, Young and Okiishi,
Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics
Zucker, Fundamentals of Gas Dynamics
Zucrow and Hoffman, Gas Dynamics
Any fluids text

Experimental Objectives
Measure lift and drag forces
NACA 0012 airfoil (National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics)
At various angles to air stream

Determine coefficients of lift and drag and

compare to published values
Determine coefficients of lift and drag at the
stall angle

Wind Tunnel Testing

Allows engineers to predict the amount of
lift and drag that airfoils can develop in
various flight conditions.
A 747 aircraft can weigh over 200,000 lbs.

2D Components of Lift and Drag

Resultant force due to airflow across an

asymmetric body is not in the direction of
the airflow

Lift
Generated by pressure difference over the
airfoil when the air moving over the body
takes a different path to reach the same
point

Drag
Result of fluid friction
Opposes body motion

Lift and Drag Dependence

Size
Shape
Fluid flow
Principle of Similitude allows us to nondimensionalize these parameters

Wind Tunnel and Instrumentation

Pitot tube

Airfoil
Us

Velocity meter
And D/P cell

chord

Lift/Drag
Dynamometer

Blower

NACA 0012 Air Foil

width

chord

Lift
Drag

is the angle of attack

Scaled-down Physical Modeling

Consider size for a given shape

Drag Force
C drag
Dynamic Pressure Area

Lift Force
Clift
Dynamic Pressure Area
Area Chord Length Foil Width

 air u
Dynamic Pressure
2
air 1.18

kg
m

C drag

Clift

2 Fdrag
2

air u A
2 Flift
2

air u A

Lift and Drag Plots

Lift
Drag

Attack angle (degrees)

Coefficient

Force (N)

Lift
Drag

Attack Angle

Lab Measurements
Drag and Lift forces are measured with a
dynamometer
Chord and width are measured with a ruler
Air velocity is measured with a Pitot tube
Angle of attack is measured with a
protractor

Fluid Conditions
For similitude, fluid conditions must also
be similar
Fluid flow is non-dimensionalized via the
Reynolds number

air uc
Re

1.81 10

N s
m2

Pitot Tube and Bernoulli Eqn.

Frictionless flow with only mechanical
energy
No heat transfer
No change in internal energy

2
2
u1 P1
u2 P2
gz1

gz2

1 2
P2 P1 u1
2

Calibrate Dynamometer

Lift
Drag

weight

Post

Dynamometer

meter

Calibration Procedure
Remove air foil from dynamometer post
Attach string and weights from
dynamometer post and calibrate (use
weights to at least 1000 g)
Remove weights and turn-on wind tunnel
and adjust for air velocity for Re = 160,000
Record voltages from dynamometer
Turn-off air and re-install air foil
Record voltage (weight) of airfoil
Run experiment

Drag Force (N)

Lift Force (N)

Dynamometer Calibration Curves

1.10

1.15

1.20

1.25

1.30

1.35

volts

1.40

1.45

1.50

1.55

0.0

0.1

0.2

0.3

volts

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

Experimental Procedure
1. Let dynamometer heat-up 15 minutes
before taking data
2. Adjust airfoil to 0 attack angle and take
dynamometer reading
3. Take readings every 3
4. When lift force decreases (voltage drops),
decrease attack angle in 1 increments to
determine stall angle

Lab Requirements Summary

Develop dynamometer calibration curves
Plot lift and drag coefficients as a function
of attack angle
Compare data to published NACA 0012
data at Re = 160,000, and for a flat plate
Determine angle of maximum lift, a.k.a.
the stall angle
Calculate uncertainty of the lift coefficient
at the stall angle

 In 1915, the U.S. Congress created the National

Advisory Committee on Aeronautics (NACA -- a
precursor of NASA). During the 1920s and
1930s, NACA conducted extensive wind tunnel
tests on hundreds of airfoil shapes (wing crosssectional shapes). The data collected allows
engineers to predictably calculate the amount of
lift and drag that airfoils can develop in various
flight conditions. Reference?

NASA Photo