Students Create “WINDS” of Change for Aerospace Engineering Experimental Wind Tunnel

A team of aerospace engineering students recently upgraded the university’s wind tunnel for future student research projects.

WINDS: Wind Tunnel Integration of New Data Aquisition Systems was designed by Rituparna Basu, Karoline Pearce, Nathan Alston, Jian Zhang, Jianing Wang, Yingnan Zhai, Suhail Al-Wahaibi, Alita Regi.

The goal of the tunnel was to provide additional testing capacity and options for aerospace engineers to conduct aerodynamic testing.

Previously, the university’s wind tunnel was able to measure lift and drag. The team was able to modify the tunnel to also measure side-forces, pitching, rolling and yawing moments.

The tunnel can be used in the heat convection course and experimental dynamics course.