6
Wind and Water Tunnel Equipment
6.1 Development of Wind Tunnel Equipment
The wind tunnel facility is the most widely used pipe-type device for testing
aerodynamics and the development of aircraft. Through a tubular device,
airflow can be artificially generated and controlled to simulate the flow
around an aircraft or an object, and the force of airflow on the object can
be measured. Almost no aircrafts and missiles in the development process are
without wind tunnel test. Moreover, with the development of aviation and
aerospace technology, the requirements for wind tunnel test are increasingly
high. With the continuous improvement of computer and numerical simulation technology, the measurement technology and precision of wind tunnel
are also greatly improved. At the same time, the phenomenon of wind tunnel
test simulation is becoming more and more complicated. At the beginning of
the twentieth century in America, when the Wright brothers were developing
the first manned aircraft with power in the world, the time of wind tunnel
test was only more than 20 h. In the 1970s, the wind tunnel test time to
develop an advanced aircraft reached tens of thousands of hours. In addition,
wind tunnel tests are widely used in many sectors of the national economy,
such as studying the appearance of vehicles with least resistance, wind load
of tall buildings, wind-induced vibration of wind turbines and Bridges, and
environmental air pollution.
The world’s first known wind tunnel was built in 1869–1871 by the
Englishman F. Wenham, who measured the drag force of objects moving
relative to air. It is a wooden box with openings at both ends, with a cross
section of 45.7 cm × 45.7 cm and a length of 3.05 m. Before they successfully made the world’s first powered flight, the American Wright brothers
© Science Press 2021
P. Liu, A General Theory of Fluid Mechanics,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6660-2_6
381
Wind and Water Tunnel Equipment
6.1 Development of Wind Tunnel Equipment
The wind tunnel facility is the most widely used pipe-type device for testing
aerodynamics and the development of aircraft. Through a tubular device,
airflow can be artificially generated and controlled to simulate the flow
around an aircraft or an object, and the force of airflow on the object can
be measured. Almost no aircrafts and missiles in the development process are
without wind tunnel test. Moreover, with the development of aviation and
aerospace technology, the requirements for wind tunnel test are increasingly
high. With the continuous improvement of computer and numerical simulation technology, the measurement technology and precision of wind tunnel
are also greatly improved. At the same time, the phenomenon of wind tunnel
test simulation is becoming more and more complicated. At the beginning of
the twentieth century in America, when the Wright brothers were developing
the first manned aircraft with power in the world, the time of wind tunnel
test was only more than 20 h. In the 1970s, the wind tunnel test time to
develop an advanced aircraft reached tens of thousands of hours. In addition,
wind tunnel tests are widely used in many sectors of the national economy,
such as studying the appearance of vehicles with least resistance, wind load
of tall buildings, wind-induced vibration of wind turbines and Bridges, and
environmental air pollution.
The world’s first known wind tunnel was built in 1869–1871 by the
Englishman F. Wenham, who measured the drag force of objects moving
relative to air. It is a wooden box with openings at both ends, with a cross
section of 45.7 cm × 45.7 cm and a length of 3.05 m. Before they successfully made the world’s first powered flight, the American Wright brothers
© Science Press 2021
P. Liu, A General Theory of Fluid Mechanics,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6660-2_6
381