Document Type

Thesis

Date of Award

Spring 5-31-2015

Degree Name

Master of Science in Materials Science and Engineering - (M.S.)

Department

Committee for the Interdisciplinary Program in Materials Science and Engineering

First Advisor

N. M. Ravindra

Second Advisor

Siva P.V. Nadimpalli

Third Advisor

Michael Jaffe

Fourth Advisor

Peter Kaufman

Abstract

The wind tunnel is the most fundamental test equipment for aircraft testing and studying aerodynamics. Because of the complexity of the test-subject's geometry, it is difficult to study the aerodynamic pattern simply based on theoretical calculations. Most of the aerodynamics experiments still use wind tunnels. The progress of the wind tunnel is highly related to the advancements in air crafts. Aircraft manufacturing has pushed the wind tunnel technology forward. Wind tunnels can be categorized by the wind speed limit differences, which are controlled by the mechanism of the driving methods, structure applications, etc. In this case, we built a small scale wood based wind tunnel for future testing of “Magnetic Augmented Rotational System (MARS)”. This thesis discusses the low speed wind tunnel, subsonic wind tunnel, transonic wind tunnel, supersonic wind tunnel, hypersonic wind tunnel, high enthalpy hypersonic wind tunnel, and puts the focus on low speed wind tunnel. The characteristics of the low speed wind tunnel and the related data will be presented along with its advantages and shortcomings.

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