Wind tunnel
A wind tunnel is a system for testing aircraft or airfoils in controlled conditions by creating your own airflow. Typically, the test object is placed in the middle of a tunnel and a source generates wind.
Francis Herbert Wenham is credited with building the first wind tunnel, in 1871, after unsuccessful efforts to accomplish the same goal with a whirling arm.[1]
The French military establishment at Chalais-Meudon had the first wind tunnel in France. Later, Nikolay Yegorovich Zhukovsky (or was it Konstantin Tsiolkovsky?) built the first one in Russia. Horatio Frederick Phillips built one (the first?)
Wind tunnels were used to refine the theoretical understanding of aerodynamics and to test out the theories on different airfoils and vessels. The Wright Brothers used a small homemade tunnel to test out different aircraft designs in 1901.
It seems that Gustave Eiffel created an alternative method (called by Lucien Marchis the "Eiffel method" as opposed to the "tunnel method") using a larger chamber in which
The apparatus employed for determining the circulation of the air is enlarged into a chamber of suitable size, traversed between two of its parallel walls by a cylinder of moving air. On the outside of the latter and within the chamber are located the experimenters with the necessary measuring apparatus.[2]
It is not clear that there were any Japanese wind tunnels of significance before 1920.
This wiki has 4 patents in category "Wind tunnel". Other techtypes related to Wind tunnel: CPC G01M9/00
Patents in category Wind tunnel
- Patent BE-1912-250450 (English title: Laboratory for trials of model airplanes and propellers, Inventors: Gustave Eiffel, Supplementary to patent: Patent FR-1911-436934)
- Patent FR-1911-436934 (English title: Laboratory for trials of model airplanes and propellers, Inventors: Gustave Eiffel, Filing date: 1911-11-28)
- Patent FR-1917-436934.21631 (English title: Laboratory for trials of model airplanes and propellers, Inventors: Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel, Supplementary to patent: Patent FR-1911-436934, Filing date: 1917-11-29)
- Patent GB-1918-125564 (English title: Improved Apparatus for Testing Aeroplanes, Inventors: Archibald Montgomery Low, Filing date: 1918-11-21)
Publications referring to Wind tunnel
- Sellers, 1909, Step gliders and towing tower (Simple title: Step gliders and towing tower, Journal: Aeronautics (US))
- Publication B2p1431e07, 1913, First large wind tunnel in America erected in Chicago (Simple title: First large wind tunnel in America erected in Chicago, Journal: Aero and Hydro)
- Delaunay, 1914, The experiments of the Aeronautical Laboratory of Saint-Cyr (Simple title: The experiments of the Aeronautical Laboratory of Saint-Cyr, Journal: Aeronautics)
- Klemin and Huff, 1916, Course in aerodynamics and aeroplane design (Simple title: Course in aerodynamics and aeroplane design, Journal: Aviation and Aeronautical Engineering)
- Publication B2p0741e09, 1916, The Washington navy yard wind tunnel by which various aeronautical problems are solved (Simple title: The Washington navy yard wind tunnel by which various aeronautical problems are solved, Journal: Scient. Amer. Suppl.)
- US Department of the Navy, 1916, U. S. Naval experimental wind tunnel (Simple title: U. S. Naval experimental wind tunnel, Journal: Aerial Age)
- Hunsaker, 1916, Dynamical Stability of Aeroplanes (Simple title: Dynamical Stability of Aeroplanes, Journal: Aviation and Aeronautical Engineering)
- Chadeau, Emmanuel, 1985, État, Entreprise & Développement Économique : L’Industrie Aéronautique en France (1900-1940) Thèse pour le Doctorat, unpublished version (Simple title: State, Enterprise, and Economic Development: The aeronautic Industry in France (1900-1940), Journal: Doctoral thesis)
- Gorbushin, 2016 (Simple title: The Origin of Wind Tunnels in Russia, Journal: TsAGI • International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences)
- De Paulo Mesiano, 2019, Aerostoplano (Simple title: Aerostoplano, Journal: Revista Aeronáutica (Rio))
| Enclosing categories | Simple tech terms |
|---|---|
| Subcategories | Wenham's wind tunnel, Wright wind tunnel, Chalais-Meudon wind tunnel, Japanese wind tunnels |
| Keywords | Ground structures, CPC G01M9/00 |
| Start year | 1870 |
| End year |
Links
- w:Wind tunnel, w:fr:Soufflerie, w:de:Windkanal, w:sr:Аеротунели
- MG Dodson, "An Historical and Applied Aerodynamic Study of the Wright Brothers' Wind Tunnel Test Program and Application to Successful Manned Flight", Rubicon Foundation 2005.
References
- ↑ Donald D. Baals and William R. Corliss, "Whirling Arms and the First Wind Tunnels" in Wind Tunnels of NASA, 1981.
- ↑ Lucien Marchis, "Aerodynamics—Experimental Researches on the Resistance of Air", extracted from the Second Annual Report of the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, reprinted in the Textbook of Naval Aeronautics, 1917; pp. 250–251.
