Development and Performance Evaluation of Small Gust Wind Tunnel

This study develops a gust wind tunnel, which allows us to investigate aerodynamic characteristics of a body under an unsteady flow. First, a simple wind tunnel model with one fan is developed, and its performance is investigated. It is found that the stall of fans is the cause of the insufficient acceleration of the gust. The employment of exhaust ports improves the acceleration. Four simple wind tunnel models are combined to make a multi-fan gust wind tunnel, and its performance is investigated. As a result, it is found that the acceleration of the gust increases by approximately 20 % of the previous wind tunnel. In addition, the freestream disturbance of the proposed gust wind tunnel is drastically reduced