Wind tunnel at MIT withstands 386 km/h hurricane

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) recently unveiled a new, state-of-the-art wind tunnel.

She will replace her 80-year-old predecessor. Engineers have high hopes for the future of wind tunnels in the US.

Back in 2017, Department of Aeronauticsand astronautics MIT AeroAstro announced it will replace the tunnel with an entirely new facility thanks to lead funding from Boeing. The new tunnel can reach wind speeds of up to 370 km/h and features a huge test section.

Wind tunnels have been in existence for over 150 years.years. The Wright brothers Wilbur and Orville used them before their historic flight in 1903. They tested variations of the wing design in a homemade simple open-ended wind tunnel.

When designing something that interactswith airflow, it is very important to understand and predict the aerodynamic forces involved in order to diagnose and correct any design flaws. This is where wind tunnels come in handy.

The measurements carried out in such installationscan be used to estimate how much fuel an aircraft will burn and how long it will take to take off and land. They also help track wind loads on stationary objects such as bridges and buildings, as well as aerodynamic loads on ground vehicles such as cars and bicycles.

Wind tunnels are also used by scientistsand by engineers for fundamental research, such as studying the behavior of air in interaction with an object to better understand fluid mechanics. 

The BLI fan drives the motor2,500 horsepower (1,864.25 kW). The entire drive system has only one moving part. This is much more convenient than the mechanically complex variable pitch drive of the old tunnel. Motor speed is controlled by a variable frequency drive, which is more energy efficient and quieter than the old system.

When the tunnel is running at maximum speed,the fan pressurizes most of the tunnel's flow circuit, allowing the far wall of the pipe opposite the fan to support up to 80 tons of load. This is equivalent to the force of a hurricane with wind speeds of 386 km/h. The fan and test section are the only sections of the brothers' wind tunnel that are anchored to the ground to withstand the resulting elastic bending of the walls. 

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